Mission was to catch my first mullet on the fly rod. Truth be told the last mullet I caught were on bread on the Algarve along time ago. Last century long time ago. The Loafer was my man and he instructed me to buy a suitable line, in this case a weight forward floating line, they come with welded loops now and a handy tag indicating the reel end.
Beef wrap with mustard and a tour of the man cave and we were off prospecting for grey ghosts. The Loafer lives a stones throw away from the mud flats and knows the tides and where the mullet and bass will show at given states of the tide all being well. 3.30ish was the expected turn to flood so we had a pint and pondered variously on the inevitable frailty of parents as we head towards our own dotage and the stupendous size of Dutch roach.
Off to the first mark and I immediately went arse over tit. Pleasant. The Loafer went through a few lure combinations whilst we wait for the flood to make.
As predicted the odd mullet began to appear then enough to warrant a cast. My ghillie laid out a decent cast, the first 10 metres of bright orange WF over the oozing mud and the yellow strike indicator and a multi-worm dropper and a green lantern on the point barely 2 metres out amongst the patrolling algae browsers. The indicator moved away purposely and my duffed strike failed to drive the hook home. Out again and this time no mistake. Not a brilliant scrap by any means as it couldn't get up any momentum get away and in truth it was fairly small. No matter, mission accomplished. A thin lip (the Loafer tells me the thicks are usually further down the estuary) on the green lantern.
The commotion put them down as expected so we headed up to the holding pool to see if any were milling about and to wait for the flood to reach us with a fresh wave of grey ghosts. Plenty actively feeding and out again with the winning combo. Bosh, a take expertly captured on video (perfect timing) and a much better scrap and a bigger thin was my prize.
Three chances in 25 minutes fishing (4 hours stuck in oozing filth). Easy this mullet lark. Whilst we were waiting for for the flood to finally reach us a double commotion under the bridge caught our attention as groups of mullet were being harried by unseen predators. Not cormorants or seals so could only been harbour porpoises holed up.
No luck for the ghillie but a cracking day out.as ever with the Loafer. Now to clean off that mud and salt water. Anything to avoid painting.
A cracking day Waaaak
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