Live bait size ...

[chaujern]

Hi ...

Just wondering ... if mullet's legal size is now 30cm ... does that mean that live mullet for bait must now all be 30cm? I'm refering to the mullet we get from the brissie river ...

If its like 30cm ... too big? Does anyone out there regularly use mullet 30cm and bigger apart from shark fishing?

Is poddy mullet the type of mullet we get from the brissie river? If so, then is it diamond scale / sea mullet?

Thanks ...

[obone]

I can't say for the legal sizes, but I've been told that the word "poddy" is just a generic word for juvenile. So a poddy mullet is just a small/juvenile mullet, not its own species. Anyone back this up?

Joel

[Feral]

Its getting dificult to fish mullet for livies, there are still some mullet varieties with no size limit, but I cant tell em apart, so I dont use mullet anymore for livies. Boney bream or herring, winter whiting are the go for me.

[iqarus]

if anyone has any specifics on this that'd be great.

i plan on using mullet for livies targeting bull sharks at kooka in the next few weeks, dont want the fuzz spoiling the day

[fishing_hardcore]

This might be a good opportunity for somone in the know to tell us how to tell the species of mullet and also how to tell the difference between a winter whiting and a normal one.

And are winter whiting any good for bait, if so what species.

cheers

[mick fillet]

30cm mullet are like lollie pops to bullies. even the 80cm size bullies maul them. boney bream are good and so are catfish around the 6inch mark.

Pretty sure you only get river mullet in the upper reaches . Iam pretty sure that there has always been size limites on certain mullet species and the introducing of bag limmits on some species is new even for the boney bream I think your only allowed 20.

mullet tend to swim around to much and can tangle other lines that are also out so cast the live baits wide apart and keep an eye on the lines so they dont end up in tangles.

[werewolf]

Yeah I have wondered about this question...

As for poddies, I agree as stated above that "poddie" is just a generic term for a small mullet; it is not a specie.

I thought someone in the know on here a while back said sea mullet (with the 30cm size limit) come up the river to breed but I don't know.

Mick you might have to share some of your rigging secrets for big baits, as I suck using large mullet for bullies. Had heaps of big hits, but never hooked a shark on 30cm+ mullet or bonies. However I find small livies in the 3-5 inch mark works a treat on river bullies. They suck em down without even thinking about it. A single small and sharp light gauge hook like a mustard penatrator pinned in the shoulder or bum and it is flake burgers for dinner

[mick fillet]

I have only got a frozen mullet to work with here at home but this is pritty much how i hook the bigger mullet up

[mick fillet]

Between the hooks is staino hard wire connected to twist and melt nylon coated wire

[mick fillet]

use a haywire twist knot with the single strand wire

[werewolf]

Thanks for that mick. Nice preparation I must say! Is that the actual size hook you would use? I would have gone a couple sizes bigger?

Mmmm with a big bait I was hooking in shoulder and bum in the same way as a livie, but with much bigger hooks than what you are using. I think a big part of it must be hook size, as I know with the small livies, the smaller the hook the better!

The hook through the mouth: Does it go through both jaws or just the top jaw? I cant quite see in the pic, but though if through both the mullet wouldn't be able to breath to well...

[werewolf]

Dug up a pic of how I have rigged big livies

[werewolf]

For scale, this is how big it was!

So yeah I think I need to work on my presentation a bit

[mick fillet]

yeah wolfman there the size hooks 6o's they are. the hooks go trough lower and upper lips on the fish. after a while the mullets nose goes red and they loose there energy.just a little trick to slow the buggers up and stop them from swiming around like crazy and tangling up other lines. I find that as soon as they slow up and start holding there position thats when the strikes occur.

[tomca]

I found mullet too much trouble for sharking. Catfish are much better behaved, and sometimes even survive the first shark and catch me a second.

Its getting that time of the year to start heading out for quiet evenings down at the river drowning catties :woohoo: