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The author with a striking example of a diamond scale mullet. This one is around the 2kg mark.

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According to Starlo, the humble mullet clan represents the greatest untapped sportfishing resource swimming in our waters. In this eye-opening feature, he lifts the lid on those marvellous mullet and presents us with the challenge of elevating them to the status he argues they deserve. Prepare to be surprised!

I t’s hard to command genuine respect when you eat poo and share your name with a bad 1970s hairstyle. If ever a group of fish could use a public relations

makeover, it’s the mullet mob. However, it’s an interesting exercise to forget everything you know (or think you know) about mullet, ignore their silly-sounding name, block all images of that dreadful haircut from your memory and try to view mullet from a completely objective standpoint, as if you were a newly arrived explorer from another planet, seeing one of these fish in the flesh for the very first time.

In front of you swims a handsome, powerful, half-metre-plus cylinder of silver-scaled muscle with a broad tail and big, alert eyes. It jinks nervously across a sand flat in mere centimetres of water, fleeing at a startling

rate from the passing shadow of a seabird. It then settles into a slightly deeper gutter to nose amongst the gravel for tiny invertebrate organisms and strands of filamentous algae, the upper lobe of that over-sized tail breaking the surface in small, slick swirls as it feeds.

Scanning the animal with your Acme genetic sequencer, you learn that its closest surviving cousins on the fishy family tree are actually the mighty threadfin salmon, and that you’re looking at a creature capable of swimming for sustained periods at high speed, as well as traversing the fresh to saltwater barrier without missing a beat.

A scan of the stomach contents reveals a dense mix of tiny plant and animal remains, along with some unidentified brown mush that could be… never mind. Let’s move on.

Feedback from the sensory organs shows acute vision across a broad range of the light spectrum, good hearing, an abundance of taste buds and a lateral line capable of detecting vibrations and deviations in current flow from a considerable distance. Successfully hunting this alert, highly aware and nervous creature is going to demand a significant level of cunning and trickery on your part. Hooking one on a line and a natural or artificial bait will prove to be especially challenging, and a quick assessment of your prey’s muscle mass and body functions indicate that it will energetically resist capture if you’re lucky enough to pin it. Your chances of success on the very fine line and tiny hook needed to fool it into biting in the first place look to be less than 50/50.

So, did you start to feel like we might

Successfully hunting this alert, highly aware and nervous creature is going to demand a significant level of cunning and trickery on your part. “

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A school of big diamond scale mullet jostle for a meal of bread in Darwin Harbour.

Fantails (left) and sand mullet (right) are estuarine staples around an extensive stretch of our coastline. They respond well to berley and float-suspended baits of bread, dough, cheese or even pieces of worm and prawn.

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actually be talking about a bonefish or some other highly prized piscatorial target, rather than the humble mullet? I hope so, because in my opinion mullet deserve a lot more respect than they generally receive. In fact, I have long held the view that if these fish were a little more willing to eat a bait, lure or fly on a regular basis, they’d be amongst the most popular and highly-prized fish swimming in our waterways. I suspect that entire tournament circuits, lines of tackle and techniques would be devoted to their capture, as well as books written and television series produced about them. In fact, mullet would become very, very cool fish indeed, if only we could catch a few more.

Too Hard BasketFor lots of folks, catching mullet simply falls into the too hard basket. We see them (often in vast numbers), admire their size and obvious strength, wonder how they’d perform on a line and how they might taste when cooked, then move on to chasing something easier like bream, flathead, barra or jewies. Mullet are just too damn hard.

Then, every now and again, one of these frustratingly fickle fish does something totally out of character and grabs an offering intended for another species. Invariably, we’re impressed or even awed by the ensuing fight, perhaps wondering what the heck we’ve hooked until those final moments, as colour coalesces into form. “I don’t believe it!” we gasp in wide-eyed amazement. “It’s a bloody mullet!”

Bloody mullet, indeed! Truth is, these things can really pull. Some varieties also jump as spectacularly as any barra or rainbow trout ever spawned. And they’re prolific, too. Despite decades of intensive netting, I’ve seen schools of mature bullies (sea mullet) migrating into the ocean from some of our south eastern estuary mouths in numbers that almost beggar belief. Tonnes upon tonnes of high-octane protein on the move, and not a single recreational angler pursuing them. What a waste!

To Catch a MulletOf course, not all mullet are un-catchable. In fact, I’ve seen enough in my years to suspect that none of them actually fall into that category. A couple of species even qualify as regular, reliable angling targets. Top of that short list is the yellow-eye mullet of our cooler southern waters (be sure to read the sidebar accompanying this feature that details the major mullet species encountered around Australia).

Yellow-eye or “pilch”, as some Sandgropers call them, regularly run from a quarter to half a kilo and happily eat all sorts of popular baits, from pipis to pieces of pilchard. Mostly taken by surf anglers in Victoria and South Australia, they’re actually quite common along the New

The feisty sand mullet or lano is characterised by a small black spot at the base of each pectoral fin, a pointed head and its relatively small mouth.

Bully mullet (Mugil cephalus) caught in clear ocean waters can display magnificent colouration.

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The freshwater mullet or “pink eye” makes a highly attractive angling target from Sydney up into central Queensland. They’re not bad to eat, either!43

Starlo with an average diamond scale taken on fly using a bread-imitating pattern.

Frustratingly fickle! Despite schooling mullet being a common view from many piers, they can remain elusive targets.

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South Wales south coast, and I’ve pulled a fair few over the years on soft plastics and small hard-bodied lures, especially while chasing bream in the estuaries. They’re fun to catch, reasonable to eat and their oily, relatively dark flesh makes a great bait for all manner of predatory species.

Next on the hit list comes the sand mullet or “lano”, which I’ve been happily catching ever since I was a snotty-nosed kid. Lanos fall for all sorts of small, soft baits, but they especially love squirt worms, little pieces of prawn meat or rolled balls of bread moulded onto a size ten to size six hook. If you’re targeting them, it’s best to berley steadily using soaked bread or chicken (layer) pellets with a splash of tuna oil added, but I’ve taken heaps of sand mullet as incidental captures while seeking whiting and bream on bait in south eastern estuaries. I’ve even been known to refer to these fish as “poor man’s whiting” as their skinned and de-boned fillets are quite tasty. However, if I’m totally honest, they aren’t in the same culinary league as a real whiting.

While perhaps not as lip-smackingly yummy as whiting, sand mullet are terrific little fighters for their size and, once berleyed

into a boiling feeding frenzy will happily take bread flies and other small patterns. On a four-weight fly outfit, a 400g lano will out-perform the average stream trout by a fair margin. I’ve caught my share of flat-tail mullet in exactly the same way, and while not quite as quick and spectacular as the sandies, they pull hard, too.

Uncut DiamondsSince moving to Darwin early in 2010, one of my most pleasing personal discoveries has involved tapping into the excellent city-based fishery for diamond scale mullet. To be honest, this came about as a by-product of chasing the legendary milkfish of Darwin Harbour (another story for another time!). Both species have been ‘conditioned’ over many years to recognise bread as food by the popular Aquascene tourist fish-feeding operation at Doctors Gully. Few Darwin Harbour milkies or diamond scales will swim past a piece of bread nowadays, even if they encounter it many kilometres away from the fish-feeding area. Plenty of switched-on anglers up this way make good use of the phenomenon.

Diamond scales are more prolific, less flighty, but (surprisingly) actually a little harder to hook on bread baits or bread-imitating flies than the big Chanos chanos (milkfish) they share the harbour with. This last fact is a result of their infuriating habit of sucking in and then spitting out a hook-loaded offering quicker than you can blink. Some days they leave me tearing at what little is left of my hair. Other times we manage some quite creditable bags of fish that can average a kilo and better and regularly hit twice that weight.

While diamond scales are terrific fun to catch on light tackle, the biggest surprise has been their eating quality. I’ve written about this before, but in blind taste tests against highly regarded species like bluebone (tuskfish), coral trout and mackerel, lightly-fried pieces of flour-dusted diamond scale mullet have consistently come out on top with most people. I’m sure you will find that as hard to believe as I initially did. If so, all I can say is, try it for yourself. As the cryptic blackboard notice placed outside a fresh fish retailer in Broome so succinctly stated: “Fresh diamond scale mullet… those who know know!”

This freshwater mullet pounced on a hardbody surface lure aimed at Australian bass.

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“Tonnes upon tonnes of high-octane protein

on the move, and not a single recreational

angler pursuing them. What a waste!”Photo: Al Simson www.kettafly.com

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day. This inside information was invaluable in deciding whether to use cubes of pineapple, slivers of beetroot or corn kernels as bait! Bits and pieces were constantly being discharged into the river by the factory, and the fish were quick to take advantage.

The underlying message in this is that bully mullet, like most fish, can be ‘conditioned’ over time to eat something that would not naturally occur in their diet. In the years since, I’ve used this information on several occasions to target these strong, exciting fish. In one instance, myself and a group of friends fed bread scraps to bully mullet in a land-locked coastal lagoon at exactly the same time for five straight days before arriving with our fly gear and bread flies on the sixth. The sport we enjoyed (and some of the stitch-ups we suffered in the snags) have stayed with me for two decades and more.

Cracking the CodeCatching gluten eaters and vegetable feeders in a plume of food factory effluent, or training fat, land-locked bullies to eat bread is one thing. Going out and targeting these same amazing fish on natural bait without any sort of berley trail is another matter altogether. I have the highest admiration for those few who’ve pulled it off. In my book, it’s akin to catching coral-spawn-slurping milkfish on cunning flies fashioned from bits of panty hose or other secret materials.

Some years ago in Perth’s Swan River, a small band of fly fishing fanatics achieved this noteworthy feat by studying the cyclic patterns of small marine worms, then closely imitating these organisms with fur and feather. They landed some cracking sea mullet in the process. Others have pulled off similar achievements in the middle of flying ant or termite swarms, when the bullies (along with many other fish) rise keenly to slurp down these winged insects. So far, these have been mostly one-off events, isolated by time and geography.

Like most keen fishos, I’ve also pulled the odd mullet on something outlandish over the years, including five bullies in six casts on a small, chrome Wonder Wobbler spoon one memorable morning three decades ago! A few more have turned up on soft plastics in more recent times, but there’s little pattern, rhyme or reason to these happy ‘accidents’.

In closing, I’m going to make a bold prediction, and also throw down a gauntlet of sorts: I firmly believe that some time within the next five or six years, someone will uncover an approach, a technique or a ‘silver bullet’ presentation that elevates the capture of sea mullet on fly or lure from the realm of the accidental into the category of the highly achievable. In doing so, they’ll make quite a name for themselves, and also pop the cork on one of the last, great, untapped sport fisheries still to be developed in our more populated regions… will that clever person be you?

Kid’s stuff! Charlotte Reiter with a big, fat diamond scale mullet she caught all on her own using a bread bait under a float. Do you reckon she’s happy?

Fresh diamond scale mullet fillets, ready for cooking. Those who know know!

The Untouchables

So, in the right situations, yellow-eye, sand, flat-tail and diamond scale mullet are all eminently catchable. So too are those big pink-eye or freshwater mullet commonly seen in the coastal bass rivers of northern NSW and southern Queensland. But what about that unchallenged king of the Muglidae clan: the big, blunt-headed bully or sea mullet? These impressive fish are regarded by many anglers as ‘untouchables’, turning up their wide, flat noses in total disdain at any offering of bait, lure or fly.

Actually, I’ve caught thousands of bullies on rod and reel, including many weighing well over a kilo and a few easily twice that size. Before you raise an incredulous eyebrow, I should explain that the vast majority of these fish were pulled from the starchy plume of milk-waste effluent spewing from a discharge pipe behind the old Horlicks factory on the northern bank of the Shoalhaven River, near Nowra, in NSW.

In my mid-teens it was almost a daily ritual after school to grab my float-rigged rod and walk the railway line behind the township of Bomaderry, cutting in through the Horlicks’ factory grounds, picking up some sticky, stretchy gluten on my way to use as bait. This stuff (which had a similar consistency to well-chewed bubble gum) was a by-product of the grain mashing process used to create the then-popular pre-bed milk drink known as Horlicks (not unlike Milo or Ovaltine)… and the river’s abundant bully mullet loved the stuff!

This scenario wasn’t unique. I’ve heard of food canning plants on the NSW north coast where keen anglers would drop by to enquire first about the produce being canned that

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Prime estuarine mullet habitat!

Andrew Badullovich shows off a prime diamond scale mullet taken on a bread bait. At this size they really pull!

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Sea Mullet (Mugil cephalus)Also commonly known as a bully, poddy, hardgut or grey mullet, this species is characterised by its broad, blunt, flat-topped head and the thick, transparent membrane or adipose eyelid covering both eyes. They also have a dark blue to black blotch at the base of each pectoral fin.

This is the largest and most widespread of all the mullet found in Australian waters. In fact, sea mullet occur right around the globe in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate seas, mostly in a band between the latitudes of 42 degrees north and south of the equator. The only stretches of the Australian coastline where sea mullet are rarely encountered are in the western part of the Great Australian Bight, and along the western and southern coasts of Tasmania.

In our waters, sea or bully mullet can potentially reach 80cm or more in length and weigh 8-9kg, although even bigger specimens

have been reported from other parts of the world. However, they’re more common at lengths up to about 60cm and weights of 3kg and less.

Bully mullet move out of our rivers to spawn at sea in autumn and winter. Along the south eastern seaboard, these mass migrations often coincide with the first cool westerly winds of the year, and are eagerly anticipated by commercial netting crews. Juvenile poddies re-enter estuaries and rivers, spending the first three years or so of their lives there before

reaching sexual maturity at a length of around 30-35cm. Like most mullet, this species can easily (and quickly) move between fresh and salt water.

Sea mullet feed mostly on algae, detritus and plankton, making them a challenging target for anglers. However, they can be ‘conditioned’ over time to eat larger food such as pieces of bread, and are also well known for hanging around the outlet pipes of milk, fruit, vegetable and even sewage processing plants, eating the waste products and scraps as they’re discharged.

Yellow-Eye Mullet (Aldrichetta forsteri )Not to be confused with the larger freshwater mullet described opposite (which also has yellow irises), the true yellow-eye or golden-eye mullet is a common marine species in our southern waters, ranging from about the Newcastle region in NSW to Shark Bay in Western Australia (including Tasmania).

Occurring in estuaries, bays, harbours and also along surf beaches, these prolific fish are sometimes referred to as pilch in WA, and Coorong or Victor Harbour mullet in South Australia. They’re characterised by a relatively pointed head and small scales that rub off quite easily when the fish is handled.

Yellow-eye mullet grow to at least 45cm in length and may reach weights of just over a kilo, but are more common at half that weight. These are perhaps the easiest of all our mullet to target on hook and line, as they

regularly take baits such as marine worms, prawns, saltwater yabbies, pipis (cockles), squid and even pieces of pilchard or other fish flesh. They’ll also hit a range of small lures and flies.

Sand Mullet (Myxus elongatus)These attractive, lively little fish are commonly known as lano or tallegalane mullet. They range from about the central Queensland coast around to SA, including parts of Tasmania, and have a smaller head, sharper nose and smaller scales than the bully or sea mullet described earlier, along with a defined black spot at the upper base of each pectoral fin.

Sand mullet grow to at least 42cm in length and 900g in weight, but are more common at lengths from 25-35cm and weights up to 500g. A schooling fish, they respond well to berley and

will take baits of bread, dough, cheese, worm or prawn pieces and even little strips of squid. Sand mullet can be targeted on small lures or

flies and provide great sport on light tackle. If bled and cleaned promptly after capture, they’re quite tasty to eat.

All Illustrations © anima.net.au

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Flat-Tail Mullet (Liza argentea)Also known as fan-tail, gold-spot, jumping or tiger mullet, these fish are characterised by their over-sized tails and short, deep tail wrist or caudal peduncle. They often show a yellowish/gold patch on the upper portion of each gill cover.

Flat-tails range from the Gulf waters of north Queensland right around the eastern and southern parts of the continent to at least Kalbarri in WA, but have not been reported from Tasmania. They can potentially reach 50cm and a kilo, but are more common at smaller sizes.

Although primarily algae and plankton feeders, like most of the other members of this clan, this long-living, slow-growing species can be also be

‘conditioned’ to take bread and bread-imitating flies on a regular basis and provide great sport when hooked.

Diamond Scale Mullet (Liza vaigiensis)This large, strikingly coloured mullet is very common around the northern half of Australia, extending from about the Queensland/NSW border region to at least Shark Bay in WA. It ranges from freshwater rivers and billabongs to the open ocean, but is most common in estuaries, bays and harbours.

Diamond scale mullet grow to at least 65cm in length and weights up to 4kg. They are quite common in the 1-2.5kg range, making them a great angling target. Although they feed on algae, detritus and plankton, diamond scales also consume small invertebrates and

can readily be ‘trained’ to eat bread, making them highly susceptible to bread baits and

bread-imitating flies. Their flesh is firm, white and arguably the tastiest of all the Australian mullet.

Freshwater Mullet (Myxus petardi)Also known as river, Richmond, pink-eye or yellow-eye mullet (but not to be confused with the true yellow-eye mullet described earlier), this is another relatively large, powerful fish of great potential interest to anglers. Its range extends from about the Georges River on Sydney’s southern outskirts to the Burnett catchment in central Queensland. Unlike the

other species described here, this mullet spends almost all of its adult life in freshwater, only migrating downstream into tidal estuaries to spawn in late summer or autumn.

While freshwater mullet mostly eat algae, detritus and plankton, they’ve also been known to take worm, shrimp or maggot baits, and they too can be ‘trained’ to eat bread. Occasionally,

and for reasons not well understood, one of these fish will also take a swipe at a lure or fly. Considering the fact that they regularly reach 40-60cm in length, weigh 1-3kg, are strong fighters and reportedly make reasonable to good table fare, it’s surprising that out freshwater mullet don’t enjoy a much higher profile as an angling target.

Hair Mullet (Warwicki capperensis)Common names include mullet head, bouffant mullet, lush mullet, hockey hair (USA and Canada), Euro mullet (France) and Maori mane (NZ). Regional variations such as the Billy Ray Cyrus, MacGyver and Rod Stewart are all thought to be genetic abnormalities.

Characterised by being short on top and long at the back (also described as “business out front, party at the back”), these mullet were far more prolific during the 1970s and ’80s than they are today, although remnant, non-breeding populations certainly remain in

the western suburbs of Sydney, parts of north western Melbourne and isolated pockets around Adelaide. This endangered species is often found in close association with red flannelette and imitation leather. Best observed from a safe distance and not disturbed.

Blind Mullet (Excremensis vulgaris)Also commonly known as a Bondi cigar, Henry the Third, grogan or dingleberry (juvenile form). This less desirable mullet is most commonly encountered close to densely populated urban areas and public swimming

pools, where it may be observed in isolation or (less commonly) swimming slowly in loose schools.

Typically lacking a mouth or eyes, the blind mullet is most easily captured by hand,

but will rapidly break up if not treated with extreme care, leaving only a brown residue and perhaps a few kernels of corn. Although far from endangered, this species is rarely, if ever, deliberately targeted by anglers.

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