More Mental Mullet Sessions on Strangford Lough! July 2010.

People: (Day 1): Me, K2 and Dawsey (Day 2): Me and K2

Dates: Saturday 3rd July & Sunday 4th July 2010.

Duration: Approx. 3 and a half hours each day

Tide: Low up to high

Bait: Bread

Method used: Light tackle with float set-up

Weather: (Day 1): Cloudy but warm with very light winds (Day 2): Cloudy, very windy, light showers

Results: Me: 1 thick lipped mullet K2: 1 thick lipped mullet (see report below)


Report

Day One – Saturday 3rd July 2010.

After being stuck in work all week while K2, Dawsey and Al where out fishing for the mullet it was finally my turn to have a go at them and so with 2 days off I wanted to make the most of my weekend off and try and get a mullet for myself.
With Strangford fishing well at the minute there was only one place to go and so K2 and I hit the road and headed to our favourite mullet mark in Strangford in search of the grey ghosts of the Lough and what I hoped would be my first mullet of the year caught up here at home.

K2 and I arrived first with Dawsey joining us shortly after and it was game on!
We where abit early and the tide was too low to start fishing straight away and so we made the most of this time and baited up our hooks and K2 did the honours for us and threw out some groundbait while we waited on the tide to fill in.

I had my new reel down with me that I got just for my mullet and bass fishing and I was hoping to Christian it today. Dawsey had his new mullet rod down with him that K2 helped him pick out in the tackle shop a few days earlier and with the amount of fish that was caught over the last week we were all feeling quietly confident that we would get something.

Finally when the tide started to fill a few fish made an appearance and so we began fishing .
We must have only been fishing for about ten minutes or so and with what was only his third cast in K2 hooked into his fish! Right away I reeled in and went and got the net, Dawsey said “this looks like a good fish” as K2 fought with it and it certainly gave K2 a really good battle/fight I can tell you! K2’s reel was screaming as it took line from it, it was mad and exciting to watch. The power these fish have is something else. It refused to get tired and went on run after run after run around the place and this went on for at least ten minutes before it finally got tired and K2 got it close enough for me to get it in the net safely.

We walked back over to the bank, K2 unhooked the fish and Dawsey and I both took a couple of quick pictures before returning the fish back in.
Over the next hour or so as the tide flooded more and more fish appeared and we all got plenty of bites. K2 had plenty of fish showing an interest in his bread and he got good bites the whole session and should have had at least one more fish, it was on but got of much to his annoyance.

Dawsey got a couple of what he called decent bites but most of the ones he got where quite timid meaning he wasn’t sure whether to strike for them right away or to leave it to see if the fish would come back and take it better the second time.

The mullet I found to be quite shy today, with them not coming up to the surface as much to feed compared to how they usually do at this mark with alot of them preferring instead to stay down deeper.

I missed I don’t know how many bites, with a few that could only be described as mackerel bites!
That was until near the end of the session when I spotted a big group if fish coming down towards me. I cast in over them and reeled my line in, settling my float right amongst the ball of fish and after a few fish just nudging my float and moving on, I finally got a bite that this time I didn’t miss! I called out to K2 “fish on!” My heart was racing as I played my fish for a minute or so before I got it close enough to the bank allowing K2 to net it for me and lay it up onto the bank and unhooked it.
Oh it felt good, finally after all those weeks of netting his fish the roles were reversed and he was netting one of mine.

Dawsey wasn’t here at this stage, he had moved on around the corner and so we called out to him to come around and look.
He didn’t appear and with what happened next I am kind of glad that he didn’t!

The fish had been out of the water for about a minute or so at this stage and it had got abit of mud and grass on it from where it was sitting on the bank. So rather than keeping it out of the water for any longer and with only the fish’s welfare in mind, in my wisdom I decided that while K2 looked in my jacket pockets to get the camera to take a picture I decided that I would lower the fish back into the water in the net and hold it there until the camera was ready which would give it abit of a clean at the same time.

So, I lowered the net into the water only I lowered it abit too much and before I knew it like a bullet the fish made a dash for freedom and shot out of the net and swam over to join a shoal of fish that where passing at the time and that was that, my fish was gone!
K2 heard me let a big yell out of me (I’ll not repeat what I said but the air was blue) and turned around to see an empty net sitting back up on the bank minus a fish. When I told him what happened he couldn’t believe it and just started to laugh Well, all I could do was laugh with him and made abit of a joke saying “maybe it was camera shy!” If I hadn’t have actually seen the fish I would have sworn it was a salmon the way it leaped out of the net and into the water!
Still, I enjoyed the fight it gave me and I had got my account opened finally up here at home this year and so I continued on fishing and tried to remain upbeat but at the same time feeling really stupid and very embarrassed with what had happened.

Shortly after Dawsey joined us again and when I told him what had happened he couldn’t believe it either. I’m sure he was dying to really laugh but he didn’t probably because he seen how annoyed I was.

After that only a few fish moved down and so we all just decided to call it a day and headed for home.
Although I still feel abit embarrassed still about it now, I also feel pleased that I finally caught one after all those weeks of trying. It wasn’t quite how I had planned it but hey! These things happen. For a while there I was starting to think that I wouldn’t get one the whole summer.

We all had a good day and K2 came away having caught yet another nice fish to remember the session by. The day before he should have had at least 6 fish but sadly all of them got off on him. Dawsey summed it up nicely on Saturday when he said “Norman you make this look easy and it’s far from it!” and he’s right, it isn’t easy no matter where you are fishing for them.

Day Two – Sunday 4th July 2010.

Nothing much to report back on today. There was nowhere near the amount of fish present today that there was the day previous when we were down.
Those fish that where about opted to stay down deep with only the odd fish surfacing, making an already difficult task even more of a challenge.
Again, just like the day before, we threw bread out to try and coax them up but only the odd small group came to the top to feed on the bread that was lying there.

There was a very strong wind blowing right up stream all day and I think that didn’t help matters with the fish preferring to shelter down under the surface. When fishing for mullet you rely alot on sighting the fish and so when you can’t see where they are it makes it difficult to target a particular group of fish or an individual fish specifically.

Despite this however, we stuck at it and did manage to get a few good bites with K2 coming closet to hooking yet another one.
You can be guaranteed one thing, despite my incident I will be returning to Strangford again very soon for more mullet mayhem!

Below are a few pictures of our two sessions for you to have a look at.

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Well done guys. That's another nice fish in the pic Norman! Still haven't had a chance to get at the mullet again, but hope to rectify that over the next week or so.

Mental for mullet is fair to say . well done great pics

Well done on another fine mullet Norman. Hard luck on losing your fish Paula but at least you have caught one which is more than me and a lot of other guys have failed to do.

nice one k2,but i don't know paula! no pic and no witness! and don't count k2 as a witness,hes your man!!

another fine catch k2 well done mate
Dawsey keep at them, you will get off the mark yet.
paula i'm saying nothing in fact i cant, for i'm laughing to hard

at last you got a chanse to fish for mullet your self Paula and you got 1 , well done to your self and norman, nice pictures there, and as usual great report too

well done guys great report & pics. Lovely looking spot there. Keep them comming Kerry I'd say ya already have another Mullet session planned

I'd say ya already have another Mullet session planned

You know me too well Brian
I went out last night again for a session straight after I finished work. The first mark K2 and I went to didn't fish well because it was a small tide and so we moved on and went to a second mark closer to home. When we got there we could see quite alot of fish milling about and so we fished for a while. Just as we got them feeding a group of kids came down, spotted the fish and started throwing stones in at them!! That was our night's fishing ruined and so just packed up and headed for home. There was no point in staying, all of the fish got spooked and went right of the feed and scattered everywhere. I tell you I felt like giving them a good boot up the backside!!
It was a lovely night too, virtually no wind, perfect conditions for mullet fishing as you can see from the picture below.

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nice one paula nice report and the photos are great......

I know the feeling Paula, I came across a great sheltered mark yesterday full of Mullet, started feeding them & a big group of kids started swimming just down from me the Mullet took off like torpedos but no better way to spend a few hours than out fishing on a lovely calm evening fish or no fish love the pic. I will be back soon to give it a bash dying to get myself one!!!

I know the feeling Paula, I came across a great sheltered mark yesterday full of Mullet, started feeding them & a big group of kids started swimming just down from me the Mullet took off like torpedos but no better way to spend a few hours than out fishing on a lovely calm evening fish or no fish love the pic. I will be back soon to give it a bash dying to get myself one!!!

Nightmare Brian, kids spoilt what could have been a good fishing session for both of us then. That’s the sort of thing that you’re up against and it can be really annoying. That’s why I don’t fish for the mullet very often from piers or in harbours, they can get busy with people and there’s too many boats going in and out, you never get a chance to fish. Not forgetting the kids who like to jump into the water to swim which will spoil any fishing you had planned as you found out last night. It will be even worse now when they are all off school for the summer holidays!
Luckily, the water in most of the places I fish at for the mullet up here at home is far too dirty for anyone to swim in, with sewage and everything in the water. A dog wouldn’t swim in it never mind a person so you get peace to fish from that point of view which is great.
Good luck to you for the next time you go out, I hope you get peace this time to fish. Even more so, I hope you catch one!

do'nt know how i missed this report . some cracking pics paula and norman comes up trumps again and never you worry paula,, we believe you, just dipped it in for a quick wash and it got away just messin'. you should have seen the job dawsey and norman had getting my one into the net if they do'nt want to go in, they wo'nt. but if they want to get out, they will

Should have given the kids a good spank Paula. and sent them on there way

brilliant report, and nice to get the results you were after
you look at home on that bank, in fact you look as if you set up home on that bank you have killed all the grass around you your lucky im using the new spoon and not a shovel

Should have given the kids a good spank Paula. and sent them on there way

I felt like it Thomas, don't worry, only they where bigger than me so I didn't bother if I had have had one of these I would have used it instead......and used them as groundbait!!!

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Well done guys. That's another nice fish in the pic Norman! Still haven't had a chance to get at the mullet again, but hope to rectify that over the next week or so.

Thanks very much Norman is on a roll at the minute the lucky gitt!! It was great to meet you again and get chatting to you the other day As Norman and I already said to you, anytime you are free just send me a PM and we'll take you out for a mullet session with us, you'd be more than welcome

Mental for mullet is fair to say . well done great pics

They are driving me mental razor2 I can tell you that!

Well done on another fine mullet Norman. Hard luck on losing your fish Paula but at least you have caught one which is more than me and a lot of other guys have failed to do.

Thanks Tom, I am still feeling VERY embarrassed about the whole thing but sure, these things happen.
No point in worrying about it, it's gone now.....for sure I'll get another one soon, I hope

nice one k2,but i don't know paula! no pic and no witness! and don't count k2 as a witness,hes your man!!

Talk about catch and release!! I took the meaning of that to the extreme Noel
I couldn't beleive it, I still can't What an idiot I am.......I'm glad there was no witnessess, it was a very embarrasing incident, one that I don't intend to repeat ever again in the near future.
The jokes have already started. I've been asked what is my favourite film - "The Great Escape"
And Norman said that I should change my name to 'Annette'
Someone else said that I was a typical women, everything has to be washed before showing it everyone
I just have to laugh, if it was the other way around I would take the piss too.

another fine catch k2 well done mate
Dawsey keep at them, you will get off the mark yet.
paula i'm saying nothing in fact i cant, for i'm laughing to hard

Thanks Don, didn’t I tell you that you’d wet yourself when you read what happened .......I’m never gonna live this down...I’m just really, really glad that you weren’t there because as you said, you would have given me one hell of a slagging!!

at last you got a chanse to fish for mullet your self Paula and you got 1 , well done to your self and norman, nice pictures there, and as usual great report too

Cheers Grady, it was good to get out myself after being stuck in work all week. I was over the moon at getting one, not the biggest mullet I have ever caught but who cares, I still caught one I was really starting to think there for a while that I wasn’t going to get one up here at home this summer but all those sessions I put in over the past few weeks finally paid off and I am glad that I stuck at it.

well done guys great report & pics. Lovely looking spot there. Keep them comming Kerry I'd say ya already have another Mullet session planned

Thanks Brian, Strangford Lough is a lovely place to fish. It was good to get out again but those bloody mullet had me driven round the bend by the time the weekend was over. I went back to work for a break! If you want a nice chilled out relaxing day then don’t go mullet fishing!!

nice one paula nice report and the photos are great......

Thanks Alan

do'nt know how i missed this report . some cracking pics paula and norman comes up trumps again and never you worry paula,, we believe you, just dipped it in for a quick wash and it got away just messin'. you should have seen the job dawsey and norman had getting my one into the net if they do'nt want to go in, they wo'nt. but if they want to get out, they will

Thanks Al Yeah, I heard about the ordeal there was with getting your fish in the net your lucky you didn't loose it! Norman came to the rescue and got it in the net for you which was a relief I am sure. If I had've been there I would have got it in no problem....I'm a professional at it now with all that practice from being K2's personal netswomen

brilliant report, and nice to get the results you were after
you look at home on that bank, in fact you look as if you set up home on that bank you have killed all the grass around you your lucky im using the new spoon and not a shovel

Thanks L.J.S. I've been down on that bank fishing so many times already this year that I feel like I have set up home on it
I feel very lucky that you are only using your new wooden spoon and not a shovel. Here's a pressie that I bought for your birthday but forgot to give you.....I think you'll get plenty of use out of it........

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