Do mullet fight better than sea trout?

Message

#1 Post by **KERRY1** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 1:40 pm

I have been lucky enough to catch both sea trout and mullet and I am of the opinion (although it's only my opinion) think that the mullet gave a far better fight.
A friend of mine has argued with me that sea trout are far better but I am not sure.
Pound for pound I think mullet are better fighters and gave you more of a challenge when trying to bring them in.
What is your opinion of this?

#2 Post by **MikeQ** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:12 pm

Pound for pound Sea Trout fight way harder, and are capable of much faster runs than Mullet in my opinion. Over the years I have caught thousands of sea trout and I rank them even higher than Salmon. I dont think anyone would be of the opinion that Mullet fight better than Salmon! At the moment specimen size for Mullet is about 5lbs. I can guarantee you will remember the day you hook a 5lb sea trout LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG after the memory of your first 5lb Mullet

Having said that, a nice warm day, a bit of bread and a feeding shoal of Mullet is hard to beat!!! And anyone who doesnt realise the fighting potential of large Mullet is losing out on some fantastic fishing - especially on the fly rod

#3 Post by **KERRY1** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:16 pm

MikeQ wrote:Pound for pound Sea Trout fight way harder, and are capable of much faster runs than Mullet in my opinion. Over the years I have caught thousands of sea trout and I rank them even higher than Salmon. I dont think anyone would be of the opinion that Mullet fight better than Salmon! At the moment specimen size for Mullet is about 5lbs. I can guarantee you will remember the day you hook a 5lb sea trout LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG after the memory of your first 5lb Mullet Having said that, a nice warm day, a bit of bread and a feeding shoal of Mullet is hard to beat!!! And anyone who doesnt realise the fighting potential of large Mullet is losing out on some fantastic fishing - especially on the fly rod

Thanks MikeQ, I guess I haven't been lucky enough to experience the fight of a big sea trout (yet, I am trying) which is why I thought they didn't give as good of a fight than a mullet would.
My best mullet I have caught was around 4lb in weight, on light tackle and it was an awesome fight!
The best sea trout I have caught was around 2lb.

I look forward to the day I catch a bigger sea trout so I can experience for myself how strong of fighters they are.
Tight lines.

#4 Post by **dan** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:05 pm

MikeQ wrote:Pound for pound Sea Trout fight way harder, and are capable of much faster runs than Mullet in my opinion. Over the years I have caught thousands of sea trout and I rank them even higher than Salmon. I dont think anyone would be of the opinion that Mullet fight better than Salmon! At the moment specimen size for Mullet is about 5lbs. I can guarantee you will remember the day you hook a 5lb sea trout LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG after the memory of your first 5lb Mullet Having said that, a nice warm day, a bit of bread and a feeding shoal of Mullet is hard to beat!!! And anyone who doesnt realise the fighting potential of large Mullet is losing out on some fantastic fishing - especially on the fly rod

i dunno after i got my first mullet last year, i thought it faught way better than a sea trout i had a few years ago, and the mullet was was on about half the size.

that is only my view, could have just been the tackle.

#5 Post by **wilky83** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:08 pm

Caught my first ever mullet yesterday in west cork on a free lined piece of bread was bored waiting for the resturant to open so gave it a crack what a fight i have some good photos il post them soon thought it was amazing on a light rod and 8 lb line i think the one i caught was maybe 1.5 kilos is this big??? I only landed one but connected with three the other two snapped off because the clutch was too tight the 3rd one was a monster at least 4-5 kilos

#6 Post by **Davy Murdoch** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:14 pm

im not sure what a 5lb sea trout fights like but i`ve seen a few 3-4lb`rs caught this year alone and i`d say a mullet fight is better and last longer.
as for speed i recon its too close to call.i`ve had 4lb mullet take 60yrds no less than 3 times during the same fight,and they didn`t run slowly

and they had no flow of water to help them...

the longest fight i`ve had from a mullet lasted 15+ mins on the fly rod

the best on the bait rod im sure would be 10+ mins...

would love to compare the two fish but my biggest sea trout is just over 2lb so i cant say for def.
i spoke to a bloke last year while he was salmon fishing on a south down river,and he was telling me he hooked a big fish at the same mark the year before.he thought it was a double figure salmon but turned out to be a mullet of 6lb or so..

#7 Post by **Davy Murdoch** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:23 pm

basslover1 wrote:Caught my first ever mullet yesterday in west cork on a free lined piece of bread was bored waiting for the resturant to open so gave it a crack what a fight i have some good photos il post them soon thought it was amazing on a light rod and 8 lb line i think the one i caught was maybe 1.5 kilos is this big??? I only landed one but connected with three the other two snapped off because the clutch was too tight the 3rd one was a monster at least 4-5 kilos

1.5kgs is prob about average.specimen is 5lb or 2.268kgs. the record here is only 9.1lb and i think its 14lb in the uk

there`s def fish that size here so the biggie you saw could well have been 4-5kgs i`ve seen them 12-14lb down in cork

well done on your first mullet by the way

#8 Post by **lumpy** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:41 am

completely differnt fights, been lucky enough to catch a good few sea trout and mullet over 5lbs on a fly rod, mullet tend to have one or 2 initial long runs of about 20 yards, obvoiously dependent on size. the fight then tends to be made up of you getting the fish to within 5 yards where it makes a series of shorter runs...sea trout just tend to go ballistic, they hit the fly quite hard and run quite aggressively, punctuated with aerial summersaults.. they can be subdued quite quickly if played aggressively though, in my opinion much quicker than sea trout. the best sea trout i saw landed from a river was 7lb 8oz and this was landed in about 6 mins on a 6wt fly rod. my best mullet was just under 6 and this took over ten mins and i played it quite hard on a 7wt..

#9 Post by **fishermannum1** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 10:39 am

i do a lot of fishing for seatrout, and pound for pound their well up the list for great scrapers, but will have to say that the mullet is that bit better, the fight dose last longer. i'v done a lot of salmon fishing over the years and a fight from a salmon would not hold a candle to a good seatrout or mullet...my two cents worth!!!!

#10 Post by **wilky83** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:30 am

The fight i had with my mullet lasted probably ten minutes and wait until ye see the photos to see how hard it was to land the fecker just two words " mooring ropes"

#11 Post by **Paul Harris** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:41 am

more by accident than design I have caught a 6.5lb sea trout and a 7lb mullet on exactly the same rod and reel and while the sea trout had a fast flowing river to help it and did one jump I think the mullet would just about shade it.
Salmon I would definately put into third place.

#12 Post by **red** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:21 am

i hooked into a what i think was a fairly large sea trout yesterday while spinning for pollack. i felt a huge thump very close in on the rod and about 50-60 yards of line were gone in no time. i tightened the drag a little and started gaining a little line on it. then it started jumping. for some reason i remembered reading the scotsmans report a few days ago and dropped the rod when i saw it jump. i gained another bit of line and it started jumping again. i got it in to about 25-30 yards when it jumped again and i lost it. i just stood there with tears in my eyes.
it was only when it was in close i thought it might be a Bass. any pics ive seen of sea trout they seemed to be long and streamlined looking. this looked very fat. if it was a Bass it was about 5-6lbs, if it was a seat trout i dont have a clue.
what a fight tho. i never had a Bass on a spinning rod so if thats what it was i cant wait for the 16th. do Bass jump much?? ive only had them on heavier beach rods and they didnt jump at all. thats why i reckoned it was a trout but it seemed like it might be a bit too round/fat but what would i know

as for mullet, ive only ever foul hooked one, about 2.5-3lbs and it gave as good an account for itself as yesterdays fish which was bigger.

before anyone says it,
i know i need a license for sea trout and that the Bass season is closed. i was targeting neither and just happened to hook one, whatever it was. if it had been landed it was going straight back

#13 Post by **anthony2carr** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:45 am

There is no way of comparing these two fish.

Firstly a fish hooked on a lure will more of a fight than a fish hooked using bait.The fact is that a fish will fight differently depending on where in the mouth he is hooked.

I for one like the sea-trouts aerial acrobatics.

Why would anyone put salmon in third position???Firstly, you are using heavier setup for the salmon. Try a salmon on a 6-7wt rod, I have and they fight way stronger than any sea-trout.

I have taken a 12lb'er on a 7 weight and it gave just about the same account of itself as a 3lb'er.Whoah!!

#14 Post by **Paul Harris** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:15 pm

The reason I put salmon third is nothing to do with different equipment used. I have caught salmon in stillwater, moving water, on fly, on bait, hooked in different paces in the mouth, down the throat and on one occasion in the ass.
I was comparing the fish on the same equipment caught in stillwater ie like to like.
This is a subjective assesment and we will all have different ideas but please read what is written before you comment.

#15 Post by jc » Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:51 am

My Fishing year is dominated by mullet, bass, seatrout and salmon. Mullet come out on top evry time. I live in South Wales where the seatrout are pretty big so I've had far more seatrout over the 5lb mark than mullet.
The fight from a 5lb mullet in the sea murders the fight from a 5lb seatrout in a river with the current in it's favour. Once you get a seatrout over 8 or 9lb it behaves more like a salmon, not all of them but most, not so acrobatic. The largest mullet I have had is 8lb 4oz and on a fly rod but not on a fly and it was awesome.
In my opinion 1st mullet 2nd seatrout 3rd salmon poor 4th bass

#16 Post by **KERRY1** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:17 am

Thankyou everyone for your responses to my question, it seems to have got a few people thinking which is what I had aimed to do.
It seems that most people are in agreement with me that Mullet are better fighters than seatrout.

Sea Angling Ireland

Do mullet fight better than sea trout?

Do mullet fight better than sea trout?

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