TWO MIKES GO MULLETING
by Mike Bailey

Essentially, fishing for mullet to me is associated with travelling to quiet places, and often fishing alone.  During the back end of last year’s mullet season I had kept a long-standing promise, and had taken my good friend, Mike Concannon, on a short session on the River Dart.  As I recall, there were only a very few very tiny fish about that day, and so I vowed that we would try again this summer, to see if we could do a bit better.

Well, sad to say, this summer seems to be following the pattern set last year with some dreadful weather, and torrential rain wrecking prospects for the upper reaches of the south Devon rivers.  Roaring floods of peaty, acidic water, had cascaded down from the Moors in a coppery coloured flood, putting the fish off the feed and moving them well down stream.  In short, it had been a real struggle to catch , with all too many blank sessions.

And so a rethink was necessary: clearly the fish were not present in the higher reaches, so the logical choice was to try right down at the bottom of the estuary.  A few exploratory sessions down towards Dartmouth confirmed that there were a very few fish to be had there, although it was clear that any fish taken would be very hard earned.

At last the forecast was promising with a few days set fair, and so, on the spur of the moment, I rang Mike to arrange to meet up and fish a dropping neap tide.  Mike’s enthusiasm was infectious.  He couldn’t wait to get out there, and after checking a few details relating to tackle set up, he revealed a secret weapon.  He had been given some specially created mullet ground bait which he was anxious to try out!  The plan would be to try and take some photos or even a short video if things went to plan and we succeeded in catching some fish.

The next day dawned bright and sunny, with a few cotton wool balls of cloud chasing across the blue sky.  The predicted “ gentle winds” had been replaced by a fairly stiff south westerly, which would prove to be challenging as the tide dropped.  Never mind, the anticipation of a day’s fishing in good company would more than compensate.

Arriving on the ferry from the opposite bank at Kingswear, I saw that Mike had already started to set up his tackle.  His grin was from ear to ear as he happily continued mixing an enormous bucket of ground bait!  This he confirmed, consisted of a loaf of white bread, another of brown, and also the specialist mullet ground bait, to which he had added large quantities of water.  As he came forward to shake hands I was instantly glued to this sticky substance, which seemed to have the adhesive qualities of superglue, and a distinctive but not unpleasant smell.  I was very intrigued to see how this would perform during the day.

We had opted to fish opposite the landing stage that the ferries and River Link boats use.

Mike Bailey fishes for Grey Mullet near the Station Restaurant on the South Embankment in the centre of Dartmouth Town on a sunny day in June 2008 Photo courtesy of Mike Concannon

This would seem to be at first glance a most unlikely setting to fish, with busy river traffic and masses of people the whole time.  However, it also  provide  a place with very deep water, lots of pontoons and structures, mooring chains, etc., all encased in great thick fronds of weedy growth.  It held mullet of all sizes although the location of the many snags necessitated the use of slightly heavier line, ( 6lb bs.)  A week before I had hooked a massive fish in this vicinity, and despite using all the power of my rod, was unable to stop it finding the mooring chains, with the inevitable sickening slackening of the line as it was broken.

Mike by now was energetically hurling compacted balls of ground bait in to the centre of the channel between the landing stage and the embankment.  I noted that the ground bait immediately started to fragment into an excellent and large cloud.  Mike was going to target this area in the slightly deeper water, where the current tended to run a little harder.  By contrast, I chose to fish very close to the embankment wall in slightly shallower water, and where the tidal flow was weaker.  My reasoning behind this was that in this way we would have the best of both worlds.  Mike was likely to draw fish out from the cover of the pontoons, whilst I would have more chance of a fish as they emerged from the nearby boat float as the tide dropped away.

Mike donated me a huge ball of his ground bait to try.  I mixed it with the bread mash I had prepared earlier.  We were both using soft white bread paste as hook bait, but I added a small quantity of the ground-bait into the hook bait as an experiment.

Whilst setting up my gear I did a quick check of Mike’s tackle.  It was , as I had expected, of the highest quality, and not too dissimilar from my own.  He was using a quality Drennan rod, powerful, light and with an excellent action, a top of the range Shimano Stradic fixed spool reel, 6lb line, and a sliding float arrangement with the float holding three large swan shot and couple of dust shot, to a very strong, chemically sharpened number 8 hook.  It was a very practical and work-man like outfit capable of subduing most mullet that we were likely to encounter.

It was time to make a start, and we quickly plumbed the depth and adjusted our stops to ensure that the baits were an inch or two from the bottom.  Even an hour down on the tide there was still 14 feet of water in the mid channel but the tide had a long way to fall.

Baiting up we both cast out after throwing in some ground-bait.  As we did so we were aware of a large and interested audience that was growing by the minute.; We were clearly there as part of the day’s entertainment!  You need nerves of tungsten to fish in such a congested and busy focal point, but neither Mike nor I are exactly shrinking violets, and by default, we became an extension of the local tourist board, cheerily fielding questions on a range of subjects!!!  Most of all, the majority of people were disbelieving that we could think to catch fish in the spot we had chosen, and that we were using BREAD to try and catch sea fish!  Nevertheless, they showed the adhesiveness of the ground-bait, as many barely moved for hours, waiting for  something to happen.

A shoal of mackerel briefly appeared, boiling in the water, as they chased  small fry causing some excitement, but they ignored the bread baits.  Mike was holding the middle area well and eventually had a couple of tentative bites.  Apart from a perishing hard backed crab, I had nothing to show for my efforts.

Although the tide was dropping, the flow of the current was anything but constant.  One minute it ran hard in one direction and the next would stand still.  Then, without warning, it would reverse direction and start moving upstream.

Although nothing much was happening I was confident that the continual flow of ground bait would start to work in our favour. I remember saying to Mike that I FELT there was suddenly a chance of a fish.  I can’t quite describe how this happens, especially when fishing a mark you barely know.  Perhaps it’s the accumulation of many thousands of hours of watching and waiting.  Whatever the reason I was suddenly concentrating with real belief after nearly two biteless hours.

A few minutes later, quite lazily, my float very gently started to move under and slide down.  I struck instantly but gently and my rod bent down firmly - for a moment I thought I might have snagged the bottom as there was just a dead weight.  And then, joy of joys, the rod came alive and the fish had woken up to the fact that it was hooked.

Mike Bailey carefully played and guided the Grey Mullet towards a flight of steps where it might more easily be landed Photo courtesy of Mike Concannon

I called across to Mike who came to watch me play the fish.  The water was deep, ( over 10 feet), and the current strong, and this fish elected to sulk near the bottom.  It did not tear off in powerful runs as so many fish do, but steadily swam away taking line from the clutch.  It was over five minutes before it briefly appeared in the distance, before diving again into the depths.

Mike's Grey Mullet appeared on the surface after a fight of more than 5 minutes before diving again into the depths Photo courtesy of Mike Concannon

Mike started to take some photos of the fish as the steady strain saw it starting to tire and splash and roll on the surface.  He carefully and expertly netted it at some nearby steps.

Mike Concannon eventually managed to slip a fine meshed landing net which would not harm the fish under it and lifted it ashore Photo courtesy of Mike Concannon

A quite beautiful fish in perfect condition, slender and well proportioned, a fish towards 4lb and a fine reward in a day of slow fishing.

Mike Bailey proudly holds his best fish of the day a Grey Mullet around 4 lbs caught from the South Embankment of the River Dart in Dartmouth Town Centre Monday 23rd June 2008 Photo courtesy of Mike Concannon

After a couple of quick photos the fish was gently returned to the water, recovering in the landing net before swimming away strongly from whence it had come.  The massive crowd of spectators broke out into spontaneous applause to see the fish returned, (an excellent advertisement for catching and releasing fish that are not needed for the table!)

Mike and I had a long wait for any more bites after this, but the day was passing by very pleasantly.  By now the tide was well down and the flow had eased considerably and suddenly there were signs of mullet for both of us.  Mike saw the unmistakable give away sign of a golden flank turning on his ground bait, and then immediately after he had a number of good bites.  I had a couple of tiny and fiddly bites but it was much quieter for me.

Without warning my float sank right away and a strike saw me miss the fish!  Mullet are magicians when it comes to this trick and there are days when they can send you to complete distraction as bite after bite is missed. Nearby, Mike was finding the same as his float bobbed and disappeared, with bait stripped in an instant.  I was just lucky!  The float shot away again and this time no mistake; a smaller fish could be seen frantically shaking its head and diving violently in its efforts to throw the hook; then it ran off strongly.

Mike came over and shot some video of this smaller fish which still gave a good account of itself.   Quickly netted and returned, this fish of about 2lb plus shot off like a torpedo.

Shortly afterwards, towards the bottom of the tide a shoal of fish briefly appeared.  They could be seen chasing up into Mike’s ground bait, and we both missed hittable bites.  Alas, all too soon, the fish had moved on, and the water quickly became very coloured.  It was time to call it a day.

We had some excellent photos of the fish caught and a short video too, so to some extent, we had succeeded.

It had been challenging fishing on a bright and breezy day, but at least some fish had showed up.  I was really sorry that Mike had not taken a big fish but mulleting is like that.  He had fished well all day, and had been unlucky not to connect with one of the bites.  It’s something of a lottery when there are only a few fish about and on this occasion I was the one with the winning ticket.

However, we vowed to have another try on the river, perhaps upstream, when the conditions were more favourable.  I would like to try that ground bait again in shallower, clearer water, especially if there are plenty of fish about, to see what the response is.  Mike is keen to catch his first big mullet from the shore on ultra light tackle; that’s something I hope to write about in the not too dim and distant future.

And so, for now, in the immortal words of that lovely man, Ronnie Barker, “ it’s goodbye from me, and it’s goodbye from him.!”

For those interested, the Mullet specialist ground bait is available from Martin Smirthwaite at "Amber Baits UK" who provide quality products for the serious angler.  Telephone 07761 335 811 or visit his company's dedicated web site at www.amberbaitsuk.co.uk 

First impressions are very good indeed.

I broke up and mixed a loaf of white sliced bread and a loaf of brown sliced together into a loose wet mixture with river water.  I added a whole bag of the Mullet ground-bait to this bread base and mixed it in with yet more river water.

This made far too much of the ground-bait mixture.  Although we fed the swims liberally with constant small balls of the ground-bait throughout our day, we had more than half of it still left at the end of our day fishing together.  We did not stint in its use.  It really does go a very long way.

Next time I will halve the quantities of bread and ground bait mixture.

The ground-bait was supplied in a re-sealable gold coloured waterproof bag and so the remainder will keep for use at a later date without any problem.

The Amber Baits UK Mullet ground-bait has a distinctive smell and appears to contain bran, together with what felt like complex sugars, amongst its many secret ingredients, judging by the way it clung to my hands and fishing tackle.  You need to have a bucket of clean water and a damp cloth close by, to keep your hands clean when using this or any other ground-bait and bread paste hook baits.

I have since spoken to Martin Smirthwaite, who told me there are no pure sugars in the mixture, but there are other components which help it to bind well together.  In a later development, the amount of Kelp has been increased and Martin assures me that the fish appear to love it.

On a day when few fish were observed, it certainly did attract fish to our swims.  Both fish were taken on hook bait which had particles of ground-bait mixed into it.  It broke up into a very attractive cloud on impact with the water, and we’ll be using it again to give it an extended trial.

(c) Article & Review Mike Bailey & Mike Concannon - www.fishingdartmouth.co.uk  4th July 2008