Troy and I were sitting in the boat watching a school of mullet swim by. Making me wish we’d brought our mullet net. After sitting a bit, I went for a walk along the shore. When I looked up, I saw the Mullet Man.
The Mullet Man is impressive. He has been running the Bay for years, catching mullet and selling them to the fish markets.
Troy flagged him down, but the Mullet Man told him he was on his way to make a big cast.
He did say he would be right back though.
Sure enough, a few minutes later he came back.
We walked over to his boat and Troy told him we wanted whatever $20 would get us.
He opened his cooler and let us pick the ones we wanted. Those fish were not even dead yet. That is true “fresh” fish.
We would point out ones we wanted (we prefer the smaller ones), and he’d stuff them in a 5-gallon bucket. He was also grabbing fish and putting them in the bucket. I don’t know how much $20 will get you but we finally had to tell him to stop. We had more than plenty.
Once we finished, he was off to catch some more, and we headed home to fry up some still flopping mullet for dinner.
We had so much that on the way home we talked about cooking some and then freezing the rest for bait.
It is a good thing we got so much though because when we got home there were three college kids and four teenagers hanging around the house.
Troy could not cook that fish fast enough. He’d pull a batch out and it would disappear immediately.
In the end, everyone had full bellies, and we still had a tiny bit left to freeze for bait.
Running into the Mullet Man is always a good thing.
DISCLAIMER: In a lot of places mullet is considered trash fish. They are bottom feeders and if the bottom is silty or dirty, the meat will taste fishy and dirty. BUT our bays have clean, sandy white bottoms which means the meat from our local mullet has a nice, sweet flavor. If you’re visiting Northwest Florida, try some fried mullet. You will be glad you did.
