Whats happening to our mullet?!??

I was digging for lug this evening on Booterstown in Dublin and came across the head of a mullet on the beach. Over the course of the night I came across SEVEN more! :evil: :evil: :evil: Whats the deal? Are they using them in crab pots these days or are people catching and keeping them?(which I doubt - I can't see someone catching that amount of mullet in one session in early May.) Either way, such a slow-growing species wouldn't be able to withstand much of a bashing and I'm sure if I saw 8 there were countless more strewn across the bay...

[img]http://www.dinglefishing.com/image1.jpg[/img]

They were definately fresh too - most of the ones I saw still had their eyes intact. It seems any time you go near the sea these days, you see another nail getting hammered into the angling coffin :(

I'm thinking Pots myself here.. just the first thing that hit me.

yeah, netted though perhaps? itd be a damn good session to be catching that many in one go! disgraceful! :evil: keep an eye on the area if possible...

When baiting pots, fishermen don't head fish or gut them or anything, they just stuff them into the bait bag.

A more likely explanation is that the mullet were netted and were headed and gutted on the shore before being taken to a nice restaurant somewhere....

It would be a pity if mullet became the next bass in terms of culinary desirability. They're often a by-catch in gill nets set for bass. However, there is absolutely no restriction on netting for them specifically.

As one of the few sport fish we have that are so far not targetted by the commercials, we really ought to look at getting it protected as an angling-only species, same as bass.

I have seen mullet served in restaurants throughout Europe and it is normally red mullet being served whole.

I wouldn't be keen on our local species that hang out around sewage outfall pipes!

Maybe spreading the news about our mullets' taste for human faeces and other distasteful rubbish may put people off ordering it in a restaurant. We used to call them 'Shite Suckers'

Since the fish were headed and gutted on the shore, would this suggest that the mullet (if being sold to rerstaurants) were being 'doctored' to make them look like another fish? The mullet's head is pretty distinctive with those thick lips. Cut off the head and you have what may look like bass to unitiated.

Just a theory

E.L.

more than likley it is the work of a family of otters the clean the carcas and just leave the head and backbone