MAGICAL MULLET

Why is it that mullet are such magical fish? Is it simply their elusiveness, their gift of avoiding capture or their unbelievable ability to fight until the angler is almost beaten?

wonderful 3D camo

3lb12ozs of muscular beauty

Then you have their constant and mysterious movement with the tides, their muscular torpedo shape and that most beautiful camouflaged back. Ain’t nature wonderful when the depth of colour and form makes them so difficult to see from above, though not so difficult that one of the fish eating osprey’s name is ‘mullet hawk’.

not such a great sight if you're a mullet

shallow water creeks beloved by mullet

Sue and I were walking the RSPB’s heathland reserve at Arne on Thursday and as the tide flooded the creeks, the mullet cruised amongst the legs of egrets and spoonbills. An osprey circled with intent, as they often do over Poole Harbour at this time of year, re-fuelling on mullet and flounders for their long odyssey to the sun drenched mangrove swamps of west Africa.

Christchurch Harbour from Hengistbury Head

Non of us anglers are that far from an estuary where mullet might be caught, though we are very fortunate here in Dorset to have both Poole and Christchurch Harbours in which to try our luck. We usually venture forth into the latter and absolutely love our days out on the waves.

big skies the norm

happy Trev - taking a few precious hours out from the Avon Roach Project

 getting tense now - they often fall off after several battling minutes

relief at last

it's always a pleasant surprise if we catch one - we sometimes get more - or non at all

We almost always see hundreds of mullet all around our boat ; catching them is the tricky bit! Feeding as they do on algae, we never know why it is they take a lump of flake or bunch of maggots but we are always very grateful when they do. As we often say, when it comes to mullet fishing there are lots of questions but no answers!
Much admired angling author and Times columnist Brian Clarke wrote in an Angling Trust newsletter that he's sure trying to catch mullet was the quickest way to the asylum that he knew!

if you're thinking you might catch a mullet ...

first cast bass for Jim

Sometimes they don’t seem interested in any of our bait but luckily there are lots of other species to catch. Bass are always a possibility, good roach, clonking great dace and beautiful bronze bream are a probability. So there’s never a dull moment as when the float fails to do so you never quite know what has taken the bait. Hours of fun.

my favourite - a pound+ roach

a 3lb+ bream pulls well in the tide

another lovely bronze battler

a clonking dace for Martin

Martin trying to avoid politics while Trev bags up

another nice bronze bream

hours of fun ... but no one promises it won't rain - it did! 

Going out with friends makes the days even more enjoyable and this year we’ve been fortunate to be joined by Martin Salter and Jim Wreglesworth, both of whom are as enthusiastic about trying to catch mullet as Trev and I.

a colourful summer dawn and the tide flooding

yours truly being beaten up by a mullet - they don't half pull! I hope your rod is strong enough Mr. Drennan

not all that big either

I spent my birthday with Sue instead of fishing with the lads, [brownie points earned maybe?] … taming a starling, walking around the estuary looking at wildlife and going on a boat trip, so was able to see Jim and Trev from a tourists point of view.

compass on top of Hengistbury Head

you don't often get a dawn greeting like this

emperor dragonfly egg laying

Jim and Trev approaching the Clay Pool

HM as 'papparazzi'

It was a successful day all round, for I enjoyed two ice creams and Trev caught his biggest ever mullet, a battler of 5lb6ozs that for several minutes had him squealing for mercy!

how big?

this big - a 5lb6oz PB for Trev

Another friend, Steve Derby caught an absolute monster on Thursday, all 8lb 9ozs of it. What a creature .. and the mullet was quite impressive too! No pics yet but I’ll add it to a later blog. Well done that man.

plastic rings to identify individuals in the flocks

I got the impression that this guy wasn't very happy

Sue and I were lucky enough to be on the quay during a swan upping, the ringing of the flightless monsters for research and it was easy to understand how mullet become conditioned to eat bread judging by the amount holidaymakers were throwing to the wildfowl.

lots of bread for ducks and swans ... and mullet

So, if you've never tried to catch a mullet, give it a go before this lovely summer passes by. Strong float rod, centre pin reel, 6lb line straight through and a large lump of flake on a strong ten hook … what could be simpler! Getting the critters to take the bait is the trick, then landing them the challenge. Go on, test your tackle ...

AVON ROACH

a perfect roach fisher's dawn

“There’s more to fishing than catching fish” … a cliché I know but never truer than when fishing with friends …

… and this year I’ve had my fill of friends catching more than me! Take Boxing Day for instance.

surely there's got to be a two pounder here 

I started before dawn, picked the swim where I was convinced there’d be a big roach waiting for me, got bored watching a float wandering around the slack water eddy and went off to do some proper trotting.

I’d convinced my mate Trevor Harrop that we’d catch a big roach, in spite of heavily coloured flood water with ice covered puddles after a heavy overnight frost - so he sensibly turned up after lunch, drinks Stuarts’ tea, talked the hind legs off all the donkeys in the field then at my suggestion, drops a bit of bread into the hot swim I had baited earlier and promptly pulls out a 2lb roach. Who needs enemies when you have friends like Trevor.

Trev with his jammy two pound roach

So my New Years Resolution is to put my friends in the worst swims with rubbish bait and then show them how it should be done. In truth, I was absolutely delighted for Trev. because as my wife Sue said, “he doesn’t often catch anything”!

Now lets stop the leg pulling and say how richly deserved that roach was – and if you doubt me, just have a look at Trev and Budgie’s Avon Roach Project Blog. You only just get an impression of how much work, dedication and sheer bloody mindedness goes into the success that they are achieving and we should all be eternally grateful that at least a few people are actually getting on and doing something to help provide us with some roach fishing in the future instead of just whingeing and suggesting it’s a waste of time. Just read on and be inspired - http://www.avonroachproject.blogspot.co.uk/

And while we are handing out the plaudits, lets not forget the support for the project from the EA or the work of several of us that were concerned at the dramatic decline of roach and the critical loss of many of our rivers’ much lauded balance of nature between predators and prey.

the predatory pike becomes the prey © Stewart Canham

Lots of writing and petitions by us and the Angling Trust actually won us some Government concessions on the laws governing cormorant controls. We can now more effectively protect our fisheries and hopefully, in time, our wildlife will recover from the tragedy of unsustainable predation. The campaign was a triumph but is only the start of our attempt to enhance wildlife.

cute and cuddly - no! © Jane Adams

With more fish in our rivers, the problems of widespread predation by otters will ease, for at present they are running wild, killing lots of birds, even grebes and several of the brood of swans shown below. They destroy fisheries and even raid people’s gardens like urban foxes.

the last of our garden's golden orfe

trying to explain to Ellie the problems our rivers are facing

I banged on about this to the BBC in a series of programmes about Britain’s wildlife and I was even more disappointed than most when almost all my concerns were edited out – again. Sadly it seems that the media just don’t want to accept the truth about some of the issues over our wildlife problems, especially if it involves our much loved, ‘playful’ otters.

one of Britain's favourite mammals © Stewart Canham

I’m very fond of otters, they are one of my favourite animals because I have spent years filming them for the BBC. I would hate to see them come to any harm, but when they are so hungry that they are having to eat minnows less than an inch long and twenty were killed recently on Dorset’s roads in just three months, you have to find solutions … one of which is to create better fish habitat on rivers and protect them from all the threats such as pollution. Otters have recovered but they need more to eat if the success is not to be short lived.

the River Stour otters at Blandford are still producing cubs

OK, rant over, now I want to celebrate a year out there with the wildlife and my friends, even those that catch more than me. Some readers might feel that the catching of fish is not in their best interests but without anglers to protect them and their homes, our world would be a poorer place. I love fish like I do birds and all we anglers do if we get lucky is get to touch and admire them, then carefully return them to live another day, just as BTO bird ringers do with our blackbirds and robins [and something I used to do as well]. By catching birds we learn a lot about their lives and survival and the same goes for catching fish. They are all wildlife and we need to discover more about the challenges they face in this rapidly changing world.

This post has gone on long enough so I’ll put this ‘out there’ and write another piece about my friends, fishing and wildlife in a little while ... so please watch this space.

I returned to Britford on Saturday - three roach, lots of dace and wildlife to admire - what a lovely day