Tag Archives: mullet
Mullet fishers keep proud tradition alive for next generation along south-east Queensland beaches
For more than a century, commercial fishermen have been gathering on some of Queensland’s most popular beaches every winter, poised for action as a cool breeze blows. Their four-wheel drives, stacked with metal cages and boats piled with fishing nets, take up room usually reserved for sunbathing holidaymakers. It’s mullet fishing season along Queensland’s southern coast as the fish migrate north to spawn during the colder months of the year. The practice of fishing for mullet with nets off the beach, and the highly prized licences, are passed down through the generations. “I do it because that’s virtually all I know and I’ve done this since I was a little kid,” commercial fisherman Michael Thompson says. Video, photos, >click to read< 10:56
Stormy weather triggers 1st mullet run in ‘nick of time’ for a Christmas payday
It was the first substantial mullet run of the 2021-22 season and, by late morning, dozens of boats and anxious fishers were on the Intracoastal Waterway pursuing mullet near the Cortez Bridge. Along the way, fishers race and jostle to net them and unload their catch at the Cortez fish houses, which pay higher prices for egg-bearing females. Around 11 a.m. Dec. 21, Brett Dowdy, Shawn Childers and Ryan Sloan, mullet fishers with about 39 years of combined experience, unloaded their first haul of the day at John Banyas’ fish processing plant, Cortez Bait and Seafood. Photos! >click to read< 07:40
Mullet fishermen: A journey from Carteret County to Florida
The salt mullet trade to Cuba began to fade at the end of the 19th century, however. In the 1880s and 1890s, the first railroads reached Tampa. The railroads then began to inch further into southwest Florida, opening up the fresh fish trade to other parts of the United States for the first time. Like so many in Carteret County, Miss Lela’s husband wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity. “So in July of 1911 we come on the sharpie to Morehead (City), me and him and our first two children, and then we got on the train to New Bern and stayed the night,” Miss Lela told Ben Green. They took the train to Tampa, boarded a steamer down the coast to Bradenton and then took a taxi to Cortez. “Once we got settled I liked it,” Miss Lela remembered. “But that first year I was still so homesick for North Carolina that I cried all Christmas Day.” photos, >click to read< 13:15
Fishermen want to uplift Mullet Run Season
Steve Johnston and his wife bought a fish house from the original owners in 2019 and are hoping to keep the history alive at Jug Creek. “We share the same passion as them, they were generational fisherman that developed Cayo Costa and this end of the island. So, it was real important for them to keep it the way it is,” said Johnston. Mullet fish are their specialty. “Last year we moved 300,000 this year we’re hoping 1 million or more this year and we didn’t have enough fishermen,” Johnston said. >video, click to read< 14:37
Mullet on the run, fishermen running into rough weather, waters
“We had a little lick today,” Jason Walker, 45, of New Smyrna Beach, said Dec. 18. Walker has worked as a mullet fisherman for 22 years. He called a “lick” a small catch, while a “load” would be a big catch. When there’s a load, the parking lock at the Cortez, Bait & Seafood Retail Market, 12110 Cortez Road W., is full of trucks towing trailers loaded with the commercial fishing boats, which carry the catch on board after a good day on the water. “No loads this year,” said Walker, who still anticipated big catches to come. >click to read< 16:26
The mullet are runnin’
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Cortez. Around this time of year, the mullet run in local waters and commercial fishers give chase. “The mullet run is a term used to describe the spawning migration,”,, Like other fish from rivers, estuaries and bays, mullet congregate and then run in schools to offshore environments to complete the spawning cycle. John Banyas, owner of Swordfish Grill & Tiki Bar, N.E. Taylor Boatworks, Killer Bait and the Cortez Bait and Seafood fish house on the waterfront in Cortez, says this year’s run is “better than last year.” >click to read< 13:40
For longtime Wakulla fisherman, mullet is still the perfect catch
About 8:30 a.m. in 20-degree weather on 2018’s first Saturday, 80-year-old commercial fisherman Jonas Porter was catching mullet along Wakulla County’s coastline. Nothing stops him from fishing for a living, and since 1994, nothing has stopped him from challenging Florida’s net ban that dealt a life-altering blow to commercial fishing. “I told him not to go,” said Jonas’ wife, Bernice, handing him a cup of coffee,“ but he wouldn’t listen and now he’s sick.” And that’s the way it’s been throughout the Porter’s 57-year marriage,,, >click to read< 14:43
Linda Brandt: Mullet is so much more than bait
I grew up thinking mullet was only for bait and smoking for dip. That was probably because when I went fishing with my dad, he used mullet for bait. And because he fished with a rod and reel and mullet are mostly caught with cast nets, they didn’t show up freshly caught on our table. Apparently I have been missing out on not only one of Florida’s oldest delicacies, but a piece of state history as well. >click to read< 15:30
‘Tis the Season, Mullet Season that is!
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and with its passing marks the beginning of the most anticipated season of the year, Mullet Season. The fall run of the spawning roe-filled lowly little mullet is what put the small village of Cortez on the map as the largest mullet fishery in Florida.,,, That annual bonanza at the end of the year has become increasingly difficult in the past 20 some years since Article X Section 16, or the “Net Ban” was passed in a Constitutional Amendment that banned the use of entanglement nets in the inshore and near shore waters of Florida. click here to read the story 08:36
Mullet: Trash Fish to Gourmet Dish
There’s an ongoing effort to change the reputation of mullet. The fish was mostly used as bait. But now, mullet and its roe are appearing on menus at fancy US restaurants and business owners are betting on a growing demand for the fish. Meet some southwest Floridians who are giving mullet a second chance: Third generation Pine Island commercial fisherman and seafood producer Michael Shane Dooley said the main mullet run in southwest Florida is from Thanksgiving to the first of January. “The fish bunch up to make their move to the Gulf of Mexico,” he said. “And that’s when you see your really big schools of fish. You can almost walk on them they get so thick at times.” Audio, read the rest here 09:25
What happened to the mullet? Fish is scarce in Lee County
Whether from Mother Nature, red tide, the Lake Okeechobee releases or all three, local fishermen face financial impact, as do the commercial fisheries they supply. The mullet are missing. The silvery fish are usually plentiful this time of year. And smoked mullet is a menu staple at seafood restaurants across Southwest Florida. But some local restaurants, seafood markets and commercial fishing businesses say they are having a hard time finding mullet. The chief suspects in the declining numbers are Mother Nature, red tide and releases of dirty water from Lake Okeechobee. Read the rest here 11:20
2015 mullet season catch is down drastically
Like a lot of Floridians weary of warm weather, the local fishing industry is praying for a little cool. But for the people who catch them, the businesses that sell them and for those planning to expand Southwest Florida’s mullet fishery into a sustainable industry, the record-setting warm winter is a much bigger issue than not being able to wear a favorite sweater or trade sandals for boots. This time last year, the A.P. Bell Fish Co. in Cortez was awash in the collective catch of striped mullet, with president Karen Bell ordering more ice to keep the fish fresh and wondering what she was going to do with them all. Read the article here 18:26
This is good! Mullet plan could create hundreds of jobs, preserve fishing industry
Mullet could one day be Florida’s desired fish, help create hundreds of jobs and preserve the fishing industry. Local organizations have teamed together to study the uses of the under utilized and widely available fish and say one day it will be a big money maker. Mullet is abundant in the Bay Area. However, right now the only part of the fish that’s profitable to commercial fishermen is the roe from the females. Some local organizations are working to change that. Read the article here 10:48
Southwest Florida Sustainable seafood venture proposes processing whole fish
If you are killing a fish mostly to get its valuable eggs and turn them into an expensive delicacy, what do you do with the leftovers? Healthy Earth intends to prove its case in Southwest Florida, building on two fishy acquisitions started here: The Anna Maria Fish Co., which makes bottarga from mullet roe, and Mote Marine Laboratory’s multi-year success story growing Russian sturgeon in tanks to create a sustainable source of caviar. A more profitable and more ecologically sound solution, is to make fish chow, fish oil and maybe some fertilizer out of what is left after taking the fish’s roe and its fillets. Read the rest here 15:31
The Unsexy Mullet – Time for a “Mullet Makeover” ?
It usually happens Christmas week. Near the fishing village of Cortez, the gray striped mullet move off the flats, balling up by the thousands for their annual spawning, the water rolling in black waves of fish frenzy. The frenzy echoed by the commercial fishermen, nearly 150 boats surround the school and throw cast nets in what restaurateur-activist Ed Chiles calls “a killing field.” Chiles and a group of like-minded scientists and entrepreneurs don’t want to do away with the annual harvest of this native species off their coast. He thinks part of the answer is giving the unsexy mullet — what he calls “the ultimate sustainable seafood” — a makeover. Read the rest here 09:25
Dead mullet troubles in Anna Maria Island
“Fisher folk have been harvesting mullet this way for many generations. They have a recognized right to a way of life and a livelihood from the sea,” he said. “But we want to work with them to see if we can find a way to better use the bycatch for food or for fertilizer or for purposes other than the cast-offs and the nonsensical practices that we are seeing. “We’re seeing unacceptable conditions along the shores of Anna Maria,” he added. Read the rest here 11:07
