Does anyone pull mullet instead of ballyhoo? I know its harder to rig but its cheap to catch and would probably hold up better.
Super, double top-secret, split tail mullet will catch you some big mauis.
Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.
- More Maxims of Mark, Johnson, 1927
31’ Contender
“Touche”
250 HPDIs
In my opinion, mullet are definitely an option to augment your spread, but not a replacement for ballyhoo.
Touche is right, split tail mullet make great baits, and they swim like a champ, but unless they have been professionally processed (brined with whatever salt/formaldehyde mixture that Baitmasters/Bionic uses) they generally will not hold anywhere near processed ballyhoo. We have used netted (read unprocessed) mullet on the dredge next to processed mullet and the durability of the processed baits is pretty obvious. Local mullet are a cheap option, but expect to have to replace some of them before lunch.
It is also time prohibitive for the weekend warrior to catch, prep and rig 30 or so mullet before every trip.
That said, learning to wedge, debone, split-tail and rig a mullet is not a bad skill to pick up.
Just my $.02…