Catching Mullet for Bait, Throwing a Seven Foot Cast Net

I had been casting a smaller cast net for almost fifteen years. The problem with a small net is that it doesn’t sink fast enough to catch bait. In deeper water the mullet swim fast enough to swim out from the net. To remedy this I decided to buy one seven feet in diameter. The problem now was that the seven-foot net has heavier weights and is a lot more difficult to throw(age?). Wanting to learn I did what everyone else does, by googling how to throw a large cast net and I came up with several videos. The first one that came up was the most popular. Perhaps it was because the teacher was so good but perhaps it was also because she was wearing a very small bikini.

I am sure she did a good job of teaching the technique, but it didn’t show me the step-by-step directions I needed, so I went down the list and found one that was less distracting. Armed with the video on my phone I went outside to practice. Not getting a perfect pancake, I continued to practice until I got an ok one. The next day I went out and practiced until I threw a consistent pancaked net. By then my back was sore from the heavy weights on the net. It was two more days before the wind calmed down and the mullet reappeared next to our rv park’s dock. Renita and Dave, accompanied me and with the mullet swimming toward me I made my first cast. Success. I had six mullet in my first throw! Dave helped me to measure them, (while Renita took pictures), and we released the larger mullet. All mullet twelve inches and larger must be returned live. The reason for this is that’s it’s the spawning season and so it ensures the future of the fish. It was a regulation that was adopted due to some people netting the mullet for their roe. The roe is supposed to be good sauteed in butter and when in Florida we had watched as fishermen were throwing twelve and even fourteen-foot nets.

Almost immediately two other friends showed up, a great blue heron and a snowy egret. It only took two throws to harvest all the mullet we needed. Two days later the severe cold front came through and all fishing was closed. At least we now have enough frozen bait to last for a while, (we primarily use cut mullet for redfish)! Clear skies.