mullet fishing river lagan/belfast harbour

tried for mullet on river today ,5 hrs in sun 2 bites no fish ,they seem to be swimming all around float just to annoy us ! was meant to be working at time so didn't really mind .
anyone any tips for baits /methods for catching them ,loads about just cant work out how to get them ,i work on the river so will try to feed them every day to get them used to sweet corn .

Frustrating ain't they? I was fishing one of the saltwater creeks near Newport Co Mayo last week which was heaving with mullet, offered them bread, mackerel, tiny lugworm, harbour rag, white rag, cockle, mussel, fished on the float, on the bottom, on the surface - result, one small flounder in 6 hours fishing! Sorry, not much help there, just sympathy!

Same as. I remember fishing an old pool near Salthill in Galway a few years back. There were hundreds of them just swimming around the float. Annoying wee feckers!

Use ultra light line and free line the bait.I also find it good to try drop the bait straight over aparticular fish.Another tip is to totally hide the hook in the bait ie. if using bread flake wrap it totally around the hook.This is because if the mullet feel any tension(caused by the float) or the hook when they mouth the bait they will drop it.On Go Fishing with John Wilson I saw saw him spinning for mullet with rag behind a silver spoon with success.Hope this is of some help.

Hi there i work on the river near the seacat terminal. Iam a returning sea angler and would love to have a go at them. Been fly fishing for 10yrs now and would target mulls with the fly and bait.

Bread flake ,hide hook and use light line tackle. Ground bait for a week or so sweet corn ok but hide it in the bread biggish cunks 20p size.

U need to target the fish watch rise for bread and with a pre cast line hold high and put your float 10cm behind rise as they take and retreat back before moving on. If you good no float just hiddin hook in bread and cast behind it bread will float for a bit and then sink can be good but gentle do it so easy to scare them. if you do float one out and leave for a bit till they return to feed on floating bread.

Let me know were they are please

Fished for them a couple of times earlier in the year in Spanish arch in Galway, using bread and a swimfeeder full of crusts to atteract them. Didn't get a bite for the first two hours but then changed down to 3lb line and a 12 hook from 6lb and an 8, and started catching one after the other! Ended up with about 10 in the space of two hours.
Anyway, my advice is, as light as possible for terminal tackle.

If river fishing for mullet you will need about 3 loaves of bread for a 4 hour session. Use a match rod , 4lb line, a coarse float (crystal insert wagglers are the best). Set at about 4ft to start with and before you start fishing introduce about half a loaf of mashed bread to your swim to get the fish feeding. After this inroduce a tennis ball size ball of mashed bread every ten minutes. Cast in and aim the ball at your float. The correct shotting pattern will allow your bait to trot at the same time as the groundbait, open the bail arm and let the tackle drift downstream. Best hookbait is a decent piece of breadflake on a size 10 kamasan B980 hook or a small piece of cotton wool as the fish cannot breakdown the wool as easy as the bread.

Just spotted this thread or I would have posted earlier.

Mullet are one of the species I intend to concentrate on when I get back to Ireland. Fantastic sporting fish, but very tricky hook up with.

Have a read of this: http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/authors/leon22.htm

It'll tell you all you need to know. Top man, that Leon. If ever there was an unsung hero of anglers, it's him for all the conservation work he's done in the UK. Thoroughly nice bloke too.

And for die-hard mulletteers, here's a must: http://www.thenationalmulletclub.org/

I'm a member, I joined just to learn how to catch the Grey Ghosts. Great bunch of guys.

And the latest Total Sea Fishing Magazine has a pretty good "how-to" article on catching Mullet.