Frisky Mullet Top Bait for Saltwater Gamefish

Simple Rigs Entice Bluefish, Trout, Redfish & Flounder

There are plenty of decent live baits available for saltwater fishing, but striped mullet are often an angler's top choice wherever they school. Once the weather warms the creeks, inlets, and beaches of the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts are swarming with small fry of all kinds, and the easiest to notice are the skittish jumping mullet. Hordes of mullet descend on local waterways where they are pursued by predators both above and below, and used by fishermen to catch their favorite saltwater gamefish.

Striped Mullet come in several different sizes and all of them jump out of the water. Exactly why they jump is a matter of some angling and scientific debate, but in my opinion it has a lot to do with the fact that everything under the sun and sea wants to eat them. If diving birds, steel clawed-crabs, and snapping bluefish were all flying or swimming at you trying to make you dinner, I bet you'd jump too.

The sizes of mullet in the water go from a few inches to big female fish of up to 15 inches or more. The smaller size are known as finger mullet since they are about the size of an adult man's index finger, and they are the ones sought by most anglers who want live baits to use on bottom rigs for flounder, redfish, and speckled trout. Mullet six to nine inches are sometimes called corncob mullet and are too big for most anglers looking for live bait, although some folks seeking big game such as large bluefish, Spanish Mackerel, or huge doormat flounder might use them whole and alive on a rig.

The largest mullet are called popeye mullet in some places, since their eyes do indeed look like they are popping out of their heads. Popeye mullet, like most sized-corncob fish, are cut up into chunks or strips to use for bait. Cut mullet are a terrific bait for just about any fish, and especially good for blues and redfish in the surf.