Netting Mullet from a Canoe

Jonathan shows one of the mullet we captured a few days ago.  This fish actually jumped out of the water to dodge my net and landed on the shore.  Note the jacket, it was very cold.

      I went out to catch a few mullet (Mugil cephalus) with my friend Jonathan Bollhoefer.  Although many of the fish have left to spawn, you can always find a few in some of the brackish tidal creeks of the area.  This is especially true when really cold temperatures concentrate the fish in these creeks.  The creeks may only be a couple of degrees warmer than the bay or sound, but the creeks also tend to have less temperature fluctuations.  Anyway, with the mullet in these creeks, they are pretty easy to catch.  Jonathan paddled the canoe upstream, while I casted my net off the bow of my canoe (No...it didn't flip.  Canoes are perfectly stable watercraft that are capable of quite a lot, if you understand them.)  It was night, but we had the boat rigged with lights, so we could see the fish running up ahead of us.  After a short time we had "herded" a bunch of fish into a shallow pool.  They started jumping everywhere, and I tossed the net.  I quickly captured 3, while two other mullet that tried to leap to safety jumped right into the black needlerush.  We just picked them up and put them in our boat.  We ended the night with 6 mullet.  We also saw a lonely flounder (probably about 16 inches) who apparently forgot to swim out to the gulf to spawn.  We tried to gig it, but I couldn't get the fish in the boat.  Anyway, the flounder escaped but at least we have some mullet to smoke.