Mullet, usually striped mullet but occasionally white mullet, have always been popular bait. In recent years, however, they have slipped somewhat in popularity — but not because they don’t catch fish.
Cocahoe minnows have maintained their popularity because they are easy to keep alive in dealers’ tanks and fairly easy for them to buy. Cocahoe minnow trapping has become big business.
Small croakers, the speckled trout bait of the hour, have a legion of followers. Somehow the ludicrous belief that speckled trout “hate” croakers because they eat their eggs has gained traction in the fishing community.
But trout do indeed eat them as food, and they are good bait.
Finger mullet, as small bait mullet are called, demand a little more work from anglers.
First, one must be able to throw a cast net. Second, one must be good enough to find them and willing to take the time to catch them.
The finger-size mullet of the summer are the fruits of the previous year’s spawn, which took place between October and January. Their reproductive dance takes place 40 to over 100 miles offshore in over waters as deep as 3,000 feet.
“Live mullet are really the ticket down here,” Capt. Erik Rue insisted. “I like mullet. They are easy to catch, and there are a lot of them. I bet that, as a percentage, more of our customers catch the biggest fish they have ever caught on mullets in the summer than in the spring during the so-called big-fish run.
“We use live bait when we have to from July to September. It’s easier. Customers don’t have to cast as far, and they don’t have to worry about working the bait.”
He acknowledges that the average angler can catch a lot more specks in the area with shrimp in the summer, but he insisted better-sized fish are caught with mullets, pogies or croakers.