Mullet

[Tom]

Mullet is the name of a fish.

I decided, out of boredom, to google Mullet.  I got pages of hair-does.

What is the world missing?  Mullet is a fish!
A mullet is a sweet tasting, oily meated fish that possesses a Gizzard.  It's Roe (eggs) is so demanded by the orientals that massive schools that existed into the 1970's are gone.

To watch a school of mullet back then was a memorable thing, even if you knew what you were admiring.  The school would be made up of similarly sized mullet (apparently having spent their entire lives together) and it would be along a shoreline with the fish being 3 or more feet deep, in a bank 20 to 50 feet wide and 1/2 to 3 miles long with one school following that one at a fairly close distance.  You could watch mullet swim to the ocean for an entire tide.  

Easy to net with a castnet, they were almost decimated by gill nets and seines. 

Mullet are good filleted, whole, dried or smoked.  Their gizzards are like a chicken gizzard and good fried, as are their roe.

The plural of mullet is mullet.  Some ethnicities are easily discernible by their use of the plural, Mullets.  I noticed that the Fish and Wildlife has a web page where the term mullets is used.  Perhaps that might (?) be correct when defining the different species of mullet, but it goes against my grain.

If you've never eaten a fried or smoked mullet, you should.  If you have never seen schools of mullet, banked along an inlet or shoreline, it's worth a trip to Florida in the late summer or early fall to see the extravaganza.

Schools of mullet can be seen almost any time of year, but the great mullet run is a sight as wonderful as the change of the color of the leaves in the north.

[fishpharmer]

I enjoyed your post.  Just as I have enjoyed fried mullet.  I want mine fresh, not frozen or two days old.  Its been a long time since I ate mullet.

I used to see small schools in the Santee river of SC.  Nothing like the ones you describe though.  I actually shot a couple while bowfishing, back when I aspired to be an injun. ;)

[DanG]

Cool post Tom!  Do you remember where you were the last time you ate any mullet? ;D

I love mullet, but only if they are really fresh.  Since they outlawed gillnetting, good ones are hard to come by though.  Mullet roe is an extra special treat, but even harder to get these days.  A bite-sized chunk of fried mullet roe on a spoonful of grits will just make your tongue slap your eyebrows!  It will also keep you pretty close to the house for a while. :D

[LeeB]

I had fried red mullet here in Croatia just a couple of nights ago.

[WildDog]

Hi Tom, we get mullet down here, swimming in large schools, fresh mullet are good to eat high in the healthy omega 3's, they are considered a poor mans fish here, but as a child dad fed us kids mullet every Friday night he would go to the fish shops untill he found healthy looking fish with clear eyes. When he was 55 the Dr said he had the colestorol of a 21yr old and put it down to the mullet. The history to dad's love of mullet is quite interesting as a boy his father and grandfather had cattle properties on the Clarence river around Grafton and they had a large Aboriginal clan that lived and worked on the property, dad was brought up by an old Aboriginal woman called Elsie that taught him to shoot mullet with the shotgun when they jumped out of the water. When the white cabage moth would come about all the station Aboriginals would leave the farm and head to the coast for a while on "Walkabout" because these moths signaled the "running' of the mullet off the beaches and in the mouth of the river. My family had a shack on the coast and would head over to seeing as how the labour had shot through. They make good fishing bait to.

[caver]

I had smoked Mullet last Thanksgiving weekend at some fish shack down near St Pete Beach, FL. Last time I had it before then was in the 70's while on vacation in Florida with my parents.

I also had a mullet hairdo for a brief period of time in the late 80's.  :D

[Raider Bill]

I had smoked Mullet last Thanksgiving weekend at some fish shack down near St Pete Beach, FL.

Ted Peters Smoke shack on Pasadena Blvd? That's the place to get it around here.

[caver]

That's the place Raider Bill.

[zopi]

Mullet smoked and dried, and reconstituted as soup stock makes a wonderful soup base...never cared fr the roe..i like herring roe though..

[limbrat]

Didnt Mark Twain name the hairdo in one of his columns?

[CHARLIE]

Tom, instead of searching for just mullet....search for 'mullet fish' on google image.

Tom was the fisherman of our family.  He fished and I fished at it.  Tom could throw a cast net really good and would usually have a perfect circle settling down over the fish.  My cast would always have a flat side.  Anyway, once, I think about 1963, we were casting for mullet in a cove off the Indian River in Fort Pierce.  We were on Hutchinson Island. We were taking turns and it was Tom's turn to cast.  He waded out into the water a little over knee deep and spotted a single mullet swimming by.  He cast his net out and it went out in a beautiful circle and started settling over the fish.  Just then WHAM-O!!!  Something big took that mullet and Tom literally walked on top of the water getting back to shore.....dragging the net behind him.  It ain't often you'd see him move that fast. Anyway, that ended our fishing for the day because there was a huge hole in the middle of his net.  We wondered what it was...................We'll never know cause Tom didn't stick around to find out. :D

[Ironwood]

'Round these parts mullet (hair) is still in style and much joked about. It is some sort of 1970-80's thing that all the rockers and folks w/ a Trans-Am aspired to.  :D ;D


           Ironwood

[Ron Scott]

Mullett is often used for shark bait. ;)

[Qweaver]

We have lots of mullet here in Galveston bay.  I often catch them when cast netting for bait from my pier.  But our version of this fish have a very strong, unpleasant taste and are not usually eaten.  I wonder why the difference?  The redfish, speckled trout and flounder are great so you would not think it would be water quality.  Maybe they are just a different limb of the tree.
Quinton

[Tom]

We have two mullet here. The silver mullet doesn't get very big and isn't noted for its taste.  The Black mullet gets pretty big and is what we eat.  It could be that Galveston bay hasn't got the vegetation, or more than likely (and I would tend to believe this) Most of the people who say that your mullet isn't good to eat, have never eaten one.

Mullet is an oily fish and should be eaten fresh or put immediately on ice, to retain its flavor.  I like those best when in the 3/4 to 3 pound sizes.  Smaller have little flavor and larger sometimes have not-as-good a texture.

If you get one, fry it and eat it.  If it's good, you will have all the mullet in the bay to yourself.  Except for those that the locals get and tell everybody that they are no good.  :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

Smelts are an oily fish too and in the spring they catch them by the thousands in the river shores. They taste good, I've eaten a few. Oily fish are good for ya. ;)

[DanG]

The strong taste is exactly what I like about mullet.  I don't even care for grouper or whitefish because they just don't have enough flavor.

It has been mentioned that there is a non-piscatorial kind of mullet as well.  I am a wearer of one of those mullets, and there is a very good reason for it, at least it is good enough for me.  Ya see, upon the rare occasions that my somewhat limited hair gets trimmed, I do it myself.  I can neither see, or conveniently reach back there to do a credible job on the back, so I just let it go.  Works for me! ;D

[WDH]

The best mullet that I have ever had was at a little place in Carrabelle, FL. 

My dad would buy whole mullet that was in the country store in an ice filled washtub, and he would fry the white roe.  These memories are humbling  :-\.  Yes, it was considered a poor man's fish, but I guess that I grew up a poor man without knowing it, and I am proud of that.  In fact, quite proud.

You can't get too big for your britches.  Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, and you might not know it, but that is a powerful statement.  If you do not understand this, maybe you should.

If you don't like mullet, or any poor man's fish, then you don't have to eat it.  One can regale in haughtiness.

[SwampDonkey]

I like kippered herring to, boney creatures, but good. That is considered a poor man's fish to. There are many a herring chucker on Grand Mannan Island. ;) That's part of New Brunswick by the way. ;D You can buy it in the can or frozen fillets to boil.  8) Can't buy it fresh any longer, used to boil it on top of the taters. ;D