Southern Fried Mullet

It has been said that one cannot catch mullet on a hook, and that one cannot catch mullet on fish bait.  I grew up knowing that one could catch mullet, in Florida’s fresh water canals, on a small hook baited with little balls of bread dough.  That was taught to me by a Seminole Indian lady (she was in fact, my stepfather’s mother).  However, until last year I truly believed that one could not catch mullet on a hook baited with anything other than bread; that is, until I caught a 3 lb Black Mullet on a small hook baited with dead shrimp last year in the salt water canal behind my home.

Mullet graze along the bottom of the bays and canals and they primarily eat weeds, plants, and algae.  However, after considerable research, I determined that mullet – especially large ones – will eat almost anything that gets in the way of their mouth, including bits of shrimp and guppies  (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_mullets_eat).  I know this because I caught another one today on a tiny hook baited with a piece of shrimp; a 3.14 pound Black Mullet, according to Roland Martin’s length and girth formula.  This one was 18.5″ long and had a girth of 11″ (a fat and strong one that put up a really good fight on the micro spinning tackle that I use to catch live bait)!

Mullet are not considered to be good food fare according to most people, and I tend to agree after having cooked the first one using a recipe for “Blackened Drunken Mullet.” After tasting that dish I have determined that one should probably be slightly inebriated before attempting to eat “Blackened Mullet.”  But, since the fish I caught today produced two very nice little fillets, I am going to try once again to dine on mullet.   This time I am going to use a recipe for Southern Fried Mullet that I took from the website of the Boggy Bay Mullet Festival which is held annually in Niceville, Florida (how could I go wrong)?