You Won't Believe How EASY It Is To Catch Mullet and Garfish On Fly!
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Mullet and garfish make the ideal starter species for anyone keen on having a crack at fly fishing! As Steve 'Starlo' Starling shows in this episode, it's not hard to catch these fish on fly and you don't need a heap of expensive or complicated tackle to do it... So, what are you waiting for?
SPECIAL OFFER: DNA fishing Tackle stock lots of really good, affordable fly fishing gear and they're now offering viewers of this channel a whopping 15% discount off their already highly competitive prices! Simply go to their website and on-line store at dnafishingtack... and when you check out, use the discount code Fish15otopia to receive 15% off - even on items already at special prices!
If you'd like to watch Starlo's earlier episodes about catching garfish and mullet in a bread berley, here are the links: • SECRETS For Catching &... and • Catching MULLET for Fo...
Finally, if you love this video and the channel, please consider shouting Starlo a beer (or a coffee!) to help him produce lots MORE great UA-cam content for your viewing pleasure! Simply go to: www.buymeacoff...
Thanks... and cheers!
SPECIAL OFFER: DNA fishing Tackle stock lots of really good, affordable fly fishing gear and they're now offering viewers of this channel a whopping 15% discount off their already highly competitive prices! Simply go to their website and on-line store at dnafishingtackle.com/?sca_ref=7235106.jUyz1x9btLBvsZnp and when you check out, use the discount code Fish15otopia to receive 15% off - even on items already at special prices!
If you'd like to watch those earlier episodes about catching garfish and mullet in a bread berley, here are the links: ua-cam.com/video/HjuX1DA1W2Y/v-deo.html and ua-cam.com/video/DDxkpqC-0wQ/v-deo.html
Finally, if you love this video and the channel, please consider shouting me a beer (or a coffee!) to helpme produce lots MORE great UA-cam content for your viewing pleasure! Simply go to: www.buymeacoffee.com/starlo
Thanks... and cheers!
Always been a fan - I'm new to fly fishing and have caught many mullet and gars on conventional gear and tenkara. If you haven't tried tenkara, you really should. I didn't know these fish could be caught on fly. definitely my next adventure. Thanks Starlo.
That’s cool! Yes, I have two tenkara rods. I need to dig them out again. It’s a fun way to fish! 👍
A great way to fly fish on a warm sunny day - using 3.4 weight like you do. Got a few videos of the fun. I berley with small pieces of pilchard and usually catch snapper between 20-35cm in about 1-2m of water next to mangroves. I use a small indicator and suspend a #10-12 fly with a bright red/orange bead. Ultralight saltwater fly at its simplest!
@@markhoffman9655 nice! That sounds like a blast. 👍
Great clip Starlo . There’s some good ones in my local river ( Minnamurra). I see them all the time when paddle boarding . I should give them a go but don’t have a boat but I reckon they’d be worth a go on high tide and I could wade and keep the berley in a shoulder bag
Yep, you can definitely do it land based and I’ve chased them on fly while wading in the lower Minnamurra years ago. 👍
above sydney on the east coast - the old newcastle fly club (20 something years ago now), would have a monthly mullet evening in the swansea channel - so many newbies had mullet as their firstSW fly catch - a great learning species (and beyond). standing in the shallows berleying up a host of fish - tremendous memories!. Now it is milkfish in my local waters of Darwin Harbour - almost the sme tactics!
Absolutely! Milkfish are just like rocket-propelled mullet!
Fantastic this brings back good memories nice one starlo 👍
Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers!
You’re having to much fun Steve good on you. I’ve been fly fishing fresh waters here in the Uk for many years it’s amazing what you can catch on a fly I love it it’s a great way to fish ..great vid 👍
Thank you! Tight Lines!
Thanks for your continued dedication to content Starlo, I am not ready to take up fly fishing but I went out top water cicada fishing for bream today and it was incredibly fun thanks, got a half dozen including a very chunky 37 tipper
Nice work! Well done. 👍
Great fun, mullet. Thanks for that Starlo.
Glad you enjoyed it! 👍
Nice Vid Starlo. Good on you for explaining “little and often”
@@fliesbylonk cheers! 👍👍👍
@ and you’re spot on saying the flyrod is a awesome addition to the fishing tackle collection 😎
Hey Starlo can you use a 4wt fresh water rig for this type of fishing understanding that a thorough clean will be required at the end of the session
Yep, that was basically a freshwater (trout) outfit I was using. As you said, just give it a good wash and dry it off afterwards.
Enjoyed that Starlo. I always catch my own live bait and vacuum seal what I don’t use unless I eat the garfish. That snout nose must have went down for a cool change. Had a couple of tourists looking in my bait bucket last year. They asked if I cut the beaks off the garfish haha 😊
👍
That was a lot of fun to watch. Took me back to the days of catching livies for chasing Mulloway. That loose loop of backing triggered my OCD though 🤣
Ha! Yes. loose loops of fly line. Not really an issue on those little fellas but not great if you hook something bigger. ;)
That does look like fun,I fish for bream on fly and never thought of having ago at mullet. Even though I see heaps while chasing bream. Thanks for opening my eyes mate. Oh I do like eating mullet too. Very tasty.
Totally! Give it a crack.
Great video Starlo, it's inspired me to tie a few bread flies and head down to my local and give it a try over the Christmas break 👍
Good luck, hope you smash 'em! 👍
Awesome Steve, I’ve been meaning to hit the estuaries here on the Surfcoast with a fly rod - I’m definitely going to get off my backside and give it a go now. Few silver trevally around here too!
Ooooh! Silver trevally on fly are great fun!
Have you tried fly fishing surface poppers for whiting that would be an awesome video to watch.
Yes I have, and I've caught a few, It ain't always easy, but it certainly works!
Love catching gar on fly off the jetty. I use Midge patterns though. I'll have to tie up a few bread flys for carp and mullet I think.
Should I use wool or deer hair?...
Tie a few of each and see which they prefer on the day, I reckon.
@StarloGetsReel sounds like a plan.
Fun video. Steve you mentioned the sand mullet are good eating. I've never tried them. How do you prepare and cook them?
Cheers! Mullet are good lots of ways. Great smoked, but also just filleted, skinned and shallow fried in panko breadcrumbs.
Hey Steve, great video. Do you have any more details on the bread fly? What materials etc?
Floating one was spun deer hair. Sinking one just a bit of white dubbing wrapped on a hook. Styrofoam bean bag balls glued onto a hook work well, too.
Question about your slow sinking point fly - do you add a bit of lead wrap or do you find the hook alone is enough for a slow sink?
That one just had the hook. I quite like the slow sink.
Great video champion
Thank you!
Where would you look to set anchor for this sort of session?
In one to three meters of water adjacent to shallow flats is usually pretty good.
Mullet and gar are so much fun and great in the smoker. Do you ever get whiting on fly Starlo?
Sometimes, but I find them fairly tricky.
@StarloGetsReel yes I imagine they are, haven't done a lot of saltwater fly fishing myself but I guess maybe a shrimp or yabby pattern might appeal to them
@@Spectrecontrol Have had a surprising amount of success on whiting compared to soft plastics using a BMS hammerhead fly - works great on bream and the usual species but a fast retrieve lands a lot of whiting. Tie it on a Mustad Aberdeen Pro Select (3261NPBLN) size 6 - widely available from your local Boating Camping Fun shop
@sumfesh8574 that sounds like it will be a lot of fun - thanks!
Not to butt in but 😂 try skipping shrimps. Cast ‘em as far away from you as possible and a rapid double handed retrieve if the whiting start hitting accelerate that retrieve even more
now ya better cook them for us!
Sounds good!
Keeping fish in a live well (which I do) is questionable in Victoria. The book says something like "Fish must be dispatched or released immediately". I have asked fisheries and have received vague answers either way. Upgrading is also frowned on. So keeping fish alive to select the keepers later appears to be illegal. Hasn't stopped me so far for Bream and Flathead but may be just a matter of time. Love the videos, keep them coming.
Interesting! It's certainly not legal to keep over your bag limit, under/over-sized or protected species in the live well, but apart from that I think it's fine here in NSW... not so sure in other jurisdictions... However that VIC ruling certainly sounds vague! What about people with live baits on board??
@StarloGetsReel Just a quick Google check. Yes you can use Mullet as live bait size and quantity limits apply (poddy mullet basically). No you cannot use Salmon as live bait. Yes you can use Slimy Mackerel. It seems to vary depending on the fish.
Flys under a float will likely work too. I know it does sometimes with trout.
For sure.
Question from the UK, do your garfish have green bones like ours do?
Slightly greenish, but our long toms certainly do, which are the fish with two extended jaws and fine, sharp teeth that most of the world call garfish or needlefish. What we call gar are known as halfbeaks or balao (ballyhoo) in many regions.
Hi starlo , I’m 13 and always been a keen fisherman. Recently I have been interested in fly fishing and would like to give it a good crack. Mostly chasing trout and also the mullet I wanted to ask if you had any recommendations about what fly rod and reel to start off with that mabey isn’t too expensive, probably under 500 Australian dollars, as I do have a fair bit of money since getting a job. Cheers Jai
@@Randomstuff-wn6mc hi Jai. Definitely check out those DNA Tackle combos. They are excellent value for money: you can get a rod, reel, backing and fly line for somewhere around the dollars you mentioned, especially using the 15% discount code they’ve offered to my UA-cam viewers!! I’d look at their #5-weight combo if I was you - a great all rounder for light fly stuff. The link and discount code are in the description for this video. Tight Lines! 👍
SPECIAL OFFER: DNA fishing Tackle stock lots of really good, affordable fly fishing gear and they're now offering viewers of this channel a whopping 15% discount off their already highly competitive prices! Simply go to their website and on-line store at dnafishingtack... and when you check out, use the discount code Fish15otopia to receive 15% off - even on items already at special prices!
@@StarloGetsReeland I have also seen your other bass videos , was that on the Nepean river in Camden . I have been extensively fishing there and have god a few good bass but not the size you were catching. But I’ve heard the Nepean is shit fishing
@@Randomstuff-wn6mc no, I'm on the far south coast of NSW, but the Nepean is a GREAT bass river!
They say grey mullet in NZ are impossible to catch on rod and line. Having tried a few times, I’m inclined to agree. The species is Mugil cephalus. We also have yellow eye mullet which are smaller, but easy to catch. You can even take them with tiny lures. What species are you catching here?
Yep, we have M. cephalus too. We call them bully or sea mullet. VERY hard to catch! We have the yellow eye as well and it’s the most willing and catch-able of the tribe. The ones I was catching in this episode are sand or lano mullet: Myxus elongatus.
@@StarloGetsReel Thanks Starlo. Excellent response as usual. Once again, NZ loses in the biodiversity stakes 🙂
Can you recommend any anti reverse fly reels?
I don't really use them. Prefer direct drive models.
@@StarloGetsReel Can you recommend any good 1/2/3 trout reels? I have been wanting to have a crack at some trout down the Stevenson..
Years ago I remember Garry fishing with Rex down in Tasmania using an anti reverse fly reel. Can't seem to find many out there, I guess they aren't designed and built the best? Guess the only selling point is that they don't hit your knuckles on runs?
Steve have you ever tried maggots on your fly line mullet will eat anything that is put in front of them ok 👍👍👍
Don't think maggots would stay on the hook while fly casting, but a maggot imitation would work, I'm sure.
@ absolutely steve
@StarloGetsReel maggots will stay on the hook for a long time ,I have used this many times and had a lot of success
You'll get a better hook-up with a longer fly rod. also rub the fly into a slice of bread to scent it up
Good tips. 👍
Wandering why you don't use your reel?
Not much point on small fish that don't run far. If I cranked up all the loose line and played each fish off the reel, I'd just need to pull all that line off the reel again to make the next cast, which is a waste of time. In fly fishing, it's only bigger, more powerful fish or those hooked at long range that tend to end up being played and landed using the reel.
It's easier to catch blind mullet on paper 😅
ya doing well mate , thanks for the vid, whats your location....roughly ha ha
@@WallaceLivingFree cheers! Far south coast of NSW. I mostly fish between Batemans Bay and Bermagui. 👍
You are not fly fishing it's bait fishing
We’ll have to agree to disagree on that. There’s no bait on the hooks and the flies are made from hair, fur, feathers and thread. It ticks every box for being fly fishing. If your comment is based on the fact that I’m berleying (chumming) with bread and then imitating a piece of bread with my fly, then that would rule out a hell of a lot of fly fishing scenarios, including fishing for trout during a heavy “hatch” of insects and then matching those insects with your fly. 😉