Adelaide’s sheltered beaches come alive each autumn and winter with a reliable run of yelloweye mullet.
These fish move inshore in masses at places like Noarlunga, Myponga and Normanville.
Almost any beach will produce them, but some beaches produce more mullet than others and tend to fish well every year.
Mullet also show up in creeks and estuaries but it is the beach fishing that usually produces the bigger fish, and beach fishing is arguably the most enjoyable way to catch these fish.
Weed rafts on the shore suggest good fishing as wave action washes in the seaweed worms that mullet eat.
As the tide comes in the mullet move close to shore.
Berley can bring the fish to you, mashed up bread with a couple of pilchards mixed in is as good as anything.
Use the lightest tackle that you can fish from a beach, typically around 4kg, with a mono bottom end.
Use fine hooks smaller than size eight, as mullet have small mouths.
Unlike most mullet species, yelloweye mullet take meat baits such as cockle, worms, peeled prawns and even mince.
You’ll get plenty of bites if the fish are around and they can come on quite suddenly.
They can also turn off quickly as the tide changes.
Hooking them is hard as they are very quick with baits.
They are also quite adept at getting off the hook.
A paternoster rig with two hooks above the sinker gives you two chances to hook a fish and also gives a good direct link from baits to trigger finger.
Use the smallest sinker that does the job.
If the weed is thick collect some seaweed worms for bait, otherwise use cockles or mince meat threaded onto the hook.
Yelloweye mullet are a good food fish but clean them quickly and ice them.
Freezing is not suitable for this fish, unless they are for bait.
Mullet fillets smoke well.
Putting out a small live mullet while you are fishing for mullet isn’t so silly, as the occasional school mulloway patrols Adelaide beaches, and you might also catch a big sand flathead.
Salmon trout, or juvenile Australian salmon, are another fish commonly caught off Adelaide beaches, and they show up along with the mullet, good fun on the light mullet gear.
Here is a list of recommended tackle for SA waters.
Here is the SA seasonal fishing calendar for various fish species.
Adelaide region (Myponga) tides
West Beach webcam
SA fishing regulations
SA marine parks
SA stocked dams
SA dam water levels
Murray River fishing spots
NOTE: Special snapper rules apply in South Australia – more info here.
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