Martyn White | Thursday, 18 May 2023
I decided to go down the coast in search of mullet this week. Given the conditions it might not have been the best decision, but I'm not that good at mullet and if I want to get good, I need to go and actually be actively rubbish at it for a while.
I decided to go somewhere I'd seen plenty of mullet while bass fishing. I fished a few hours either side of the top of the high tide. There were mullet around, but they were quite spread out and didn't seem to be feeding as heavily as I'd have liked. It was hard to see for certain what they were up to as the light was bad and the water a bit dirty. Anyway, the nervous water was enough and I was able to at least identify where the shoals were. I did hook and lose one fish on a little mudshrimp pattern, but otherwise things were slow. At least I can have some confidence in the fly patterns.
Not very successful, but things were learned. The top of the tide is best there for bass, but I think fishing around the bottom and the start of the flood will be better there as it'll have the fish more bunched up and waiting to come up onto the mudflat to feed- at least I hope it will. I'll also be picking my days better, OK you can only go when you can go, but I'd have been better of chasing smallies on Monday and waiting for warmer stable conditions rather than fishing in North winds & rain after a 15C temperature drop overnight. It's suddenly getting hot here over the last couple if days and the forecast looks good for this week so maybe I'll go back to the same spot if the tides look right. If not I've got somewhere else I can try with the option of targeting bream if the mullet's not on the cards..