VI. THE GREY MULLET 



By F. G. AFLALO 



HOSE who regard the grey mullet as the saltwater roach are not 

 far wide of the mark. That its capture is commonly associated 

 with that of the bass arises, not from any resemblance in the 

 feeding or habits of the two fishes, but from their undoubted 

 preference for similar sheltered waters. They are, in fact, found 

 together in many harbours, such as those of Ramsgate, South- 

 ampton, Poole and Plymouth. The mullet is not, however, a fierce pirate 

 like the bass, and is not, therefore, to be looked for in the surf off rocky 

 headlands, or to be caught with spinning baits trailed over the wave 

 crests. It is a quiet, browsing fish, sheep rather than wolf, though once 

 it feels the hook it fights desperately and with much resource, taxing 

 all the fisherman's skill in keeping it clear of posts and other obstacles 

 which offer it a chance of freedom. Hence it is a most attractive fish to 

 those who love quiet sport, not unlike that enjoyed on Thames or Trent, 

 and, while even more difficult to deceive than the bass, it is no less deter- 

 mined in its fight for liberty. 



The grey mullet is wholly distinct, in habits as in appearance, from 

 the red, and it is, in fact, only in this country that they share a common 

 name, which appears to have been made to do duty for the Latin words 

 mugil and mullus. Readers of Juvenal's satires will remember the dis- 

 tinction, particularly the reference to a curious judicial use of the former. 

 The mullet is a fish of world-wide range, particularly in warm seas. 

 I have met it in waters as far apart as those of England, Asia Minor, 

 Australia, Florida, Morocco, and the Gulf of Aden. Though a warm water 

 fish at its best, it occurs as far north as Norway, and as far south as the 

 Cape of Good Hope. There are, according to ichthyologists, more than one 

 hundred different species, of which three are to be found in our seas, but 

 for all practical purposes of angling, a grey mullet is a grey mullet and 

 nothing more. In appearance, the typical mullet is a handsome silvery 

 fish, with conspicuous fins on the back and a deeply -forked tail. Its nearest 

 relative in our seas is the atherine, or sand-smelt. It grows to a length 

 of three or four feet, and to a weight of ten pounds or so in the Mediter- 

 ranean, but in the Persian Gulf it is said to double these figures. I have no 

 first-hand acquaintance with the fish in that region. 

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