Mullet Mecca

All-round specialist angler Craig Murphy writes about Ireland’s most famous mullet venue, Rosscarbery in west Cork

 Issue 6 (Sep-Oct 2015)    Craig Murphy   Craig Murphy & friends

This month I’ve been mostly targeting one of my favourite species, Chelon labrosus, the tenacious Irish game fish, the thick lipped mullet. Mullet for me are one of the most exciting yet frustrating species you can target, especially on my local marks around Dublin. I’ve stood for hours on end this month in busy urban settings motionless, watching some massive fish circle my hook bait, hoping one will turn on it and have a nibble. Most of the time though they just totally ignore my offerings, preoccupied on their natural food source and tidal routine. If one does show interest the heart starts to race and you forget to breathe, a few seconds feel like an eternity as a fish heads towards the bait only to stop millimetres from it and turn away. This happens the majority of the time but they do come on the feed eventually and if you’re lucky you might just hook one. It definitely is the ultimate test of angling patience.

Struggling to connect with many mullet on the east coast this month, I was delighted to be asked to spend a day or two in picturesque west Cork with good friends Gary Blake and Andy Boyce, who had the use of a house in the area for the weekend smack bang in the middle of one of the best mullet venues in the country. There are three species of true mullet present in Irish waters, namely thick-lipped (or grey), thin-lipped and the much smaller golden grey. With the chance of two new species to add to our ever-growing list we had high hopes for this trip. Mullet spinning rigs were tied the night before with great attention to detail. Small hooks, fine lines and some flash for added attraction to the ‘maddies’ (harbour ragworm) we were to use as bait for these predatory mullet species, thins and goldies.

Hitting the road early to catch low water for bait digging, we just about made it in time. It didn’t take us long to accumulate three hundred or so maddies from the stinky harbour mud. For those of you who aren’t familiar with maddies, they are a small species of ragworm found in sheltered estuaries and harbours, mainly used as a scratching bait by match anglers. They are the number one golden grey and thin-lipped bait. Bait dug, we continued on to meet Boycie at the mark to start fishing in earnest.

On arrival I was taken away by the beauty of the place. Thankfully the sun was out and the landscape was shown in all its glory. I’d died and gone to heaven… We had one thing on our minds to begin with, goldies. With neither of us having caught them before, we were eager to land our first. Boycie showed us where he had some the previous day on low water and sure enough if wasn’t long before we both hit our first golden greys – small fish of a couple of ounces but it’s always good to catch the target species. We could see the shoals move in the clear shallow water. Casting beyond the shoal and retrieving slowly until we got their attention, like a pack of wolves they followed the lure nipping at the trailing worm tail until one eventually met the hook hidden inside the narrow body of the maddie. As the tide started to rise it was time to move on as the current and the weed it brought made this area unfishable but before we left we witnessed shoal after shoal of mullet race past into the estuary. It was time to follow them inland.

After some lunch and a well-needed cup of coffee we continued to cast at shoals of fish breaking the surface on various marks but to no avail. They ignored our efforts in typical mullet style. Polarised sunglasses are a must have if you’re thinking of taking up mullet fishing as they remove the glare from the water’s surface and allow you to spot fish, especially in coloured water. After a few unproductive hours spinning for goldies we noticed some larger fish thrashing around in a sheltered bay – thick lips, and good ones at that! Hastily, handfuls of torn-up sliced pan were slung amongst them and immediately they showed interest. It was a mad scramble to switch the rods over to a plain snood and bombarda float as we thought the mullet would switch off after a few minutes of feeding, like they do on the East coast. We were wrong!

It was a hectic hour of fishing with our baits getting more hits than Google as soon as they touched the water. Gary was the first to hook a fish and after a few minutes of battle it was finally brought over to the waiting net, a thick lipped of a couple of pounds or so. The mullet continued to hit baits on the surface and we all got in on the action. I lost two fish in quick succession to hook pulls and so did the lads, the drifting weed brought in by strong southerly wind the day before was causing problems. We fished on nevertheless and more fish were hooked, played and landed by the two lads so they decided to give me a bit of grief about my zero thick lip count; nothing like a bit of banter on the bank to spur you into action. As Murphy’s law states ‘Anything that can happen, will happen’ and sure enough it did. I hit a fish of around 3lb, followed by a brute which gave me a serious battle in the now ebbing tide. After a few strong head shakes sending hard thumps up the line it made a run for the sea, taking 50 or 60 yards of line in the process and again picking up a mass of flotsam. Slowly but surely I began to gain line which was festooned with weed. It was a hairy few moments while I stood precariously on a wall trying to gain some extra height and slide the weed down the line. Thankfully everything went to plan and the fish was guided over the net. A specimen thick-lipped of 5.65lb, measuring 60.7cm – when your lucks in, it’s in! As the tide dropped away further so too did the mullet. We fished on for a few hours, scouting out a few more areas for the next day but as we lost the light it was time to hit the road. A few beers were in order that night…

We arose at first light and made our way back to the same spot we had the action in the previous evening but sadly there wasn’t a mullet to be seen. It was the same stage of tide (high water), just at dawn as opposed to dusk. It was strange but I guess nothing is when you’re dealing with mullet-they can be very unpredictable at times. Eventually we found some activity on the far side of the estuary with both thick lips and golden greys breaking the flat calm surface. Our modified maddie rigs were cast into the misty morning air, the splashes breaking the mirror-like reflection of the rolling hills of west Cork amid the chorus of birds. What a fantastic place to be.

After an hour of thrashing the water to a foam with maddies and getting little or no response, the sliced pans were produced again and fed into the outflow from Rosscarbery lagoon, carrying the free offering out into the channel where we could see fish holding up. As before, they responded quickly but so too did the sea gulls and swans. Not one for wasting bait I wandered off and fed another swim. Waiting for a response, I noticed some smaller mullet below the surface, tackling some of the bread that had sunk. I cast beyond the fish and slowly retrieved it back into their zone so not to spook them. The water was coloured-up but I could just make out my sunken hook bait before it suddenly disappeared. The float dipped and I lifted into a small fish. To avoid spooking any bigger fish in the area I bullied it in a little only to suffer a hook pull. It then dawned on me that it might have been the golden grey I was after! A quick reset and it was the same again, only this time I wasn’t making the same mistake. I slackened the drag right off and took my time playing it in. As I slipped the net under it I caught a glance of its flank and spotted the tell-tale golden patch on its gill cover. This was the fish I came all this way for and it was the right length to justify weighing. The scales were zeroed and the fish was placed in a light plastic bag. The moment of truth! The scales settled at 1.6 lb, just over the specimen weight! Mission accomplished it was time for a well-earned coffee break.

With the tide well on it’s way out the swans had moved on and we could again try for the shoal of mullet holding out in the channel. Fish could be seen taking off the top 60 yards out. A few shredded crusts into the current soon made the fish move in to a more comfortable casting range. With mullet taking off the top all over it was hard to pick which fish to cast towards. I lost count of how many small thick lips we had before I landed a 4.65lb fish just short of specimen weight. Gary was extremely unlucky to lose two or three fish in a row to hook pulls but shortly afterwards he nearly had his rod pulled in by a substantial fish which held in the current for some time before he could make any impression on it. When the fish was played closer to shore we got a glimpse of its size, a potential specimen. The pressure was on him now to land it. A few nervous minutes passed as the mullet refused to come to the waiting net. Eventually it took a wrong turn and I was able to slip it in the net. On the mat it measured 57.2cm and on the scales 5.15lb. Another west Cork specimen for the crew! Gary was ecstatic after trying so many times on the East coast. He had finally landed his first specimen thick-lipped. As the tide continued to drop further still, the bigger fish moved out and, in typical mullet style, they chased each other around on the surface on their way. We switched to spinning maddies again on the outflowing channels trying to pick up some goldies but none came our way. With only a few baby thick lips landed by Boycie, it was time for myself and Gary to call it a day as we had to be back in Dublin that evening.

It was certainly a session to remember! I lost count of the number of mullet landed in the end. It was fantastic fishing in beautiful surroundings with great company, plenty of laughs and the added bonus of a few specimen fish. I couldn’t ask for more. It was great to see Gary land his first specimen thick lipped and we all agreed that it was definitely worth the 700 km round trip! I would highly recommend a trip down to west Cork and not just for the mullet fishing; the area has a variety of species to target. I’d like to thank Andy Boycie and Chloe for putting us up for the night and to all my angling buddies who offered advice on the venue and tactics. I will most certainly return again next year to try and single out the elusive thin-lipped…

Until next time, tight lines

Craig Murphy