While I was sitting by the bay the other day a mullet jumped right in front of me. That’s not unusual if you spend anytime near the water, and it elicited memories of stories I’ve heard over the years that sparked my curiosity.
The first explanation I remember was from the longtime outdoors editor of the Bradenton Herald, Jerry Hill (from the late 1970s until his passing in 2009). A man with a vibrant sense of humor, Hill explained how mullet were vegetarians and eating all those veggies caused them to be flatulent. Releasing that gas was what propelled them out of the water.
Humor aside, I decided to do a search and came up with probable causes: it helps them supplement their oxygen (the theory being they spend a lot of time in warm, cloudy, oxygen-poor water); jumping helps them shed parasites, avoid predators and maybe even helps them see where they were going!
Since I was seeing them jump in clear, cold water I discounted the supplementing O2 theory. I reached out to some commercial fishermen and anglers that I know and respect to get their takes. A highly respected guide who is by nature very observant (he also commercially cast netted) told me he thought it served the purpose of helping them digest their food, since mullet are one of the only fish with a gizzard. Additionally, he suggested it helped them communicate, as he has observed that males and female jumped at different times, especially when they were in spawning populations.
When I called a Cortezian friend who grew up in the village and asked him, he responded, “You want me to ask a Cortezian why mullet jump?” We had a good laugh over that and hung up. The next day he called to say he had reached out to the oldest and most knowledgeable commercial fisherman in Cortez and got a response. The explanation he offered was that after a lifetime of observing and pursuing them, he believed they jumped to communicate.
Amazingly, I got this call while I was sitting by the bay – and as if the mullet were privy to this conversation, a number of them started to jump right in front of me.
When I looked up, I saw a boat with two commercial cast netters approaching about two hundred yards in the distance. As the boat came closer the mullet stopped jumping, as if they had alerted the school and were hiding as the boat closed in. A coincidence? Maybe. But I’m guessing that if we want to know for sure we’ll have to ask a mullet!
Do you have a theory? Have you spoken to a mullet recently? Feel free to share a comment at this week’s Reel Time column posted on the Anna Maria Island Sun Facebook page.
