Skip to main content

Tag: mullet fishing

Diorama depicts mullet netting methods

Diorama depicts mullet netting methods

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Fishing, Outdoors.

CORTEZ – A refurbished diorama depicting now-defunct mullet netting techniques used by early Cortez fishermen was unveiled at the Cortez Cultural Center’s environmental learning event on April 20.

“Cortez is all about fishing. It is mission critical for Cortez,” Cortez Village Historical Society (CVHS) President Cindy Rodgers said as the diorama was introduced.

Gill net fishing, seine fishing and stop fishing have all been outlawed in Florida, but for many years those were the standard techniques for catching mullet and all are represented in the diorama.

The diorama was built by John McDonald and Dr. Bill Baum and had been displayed at the Florida Maritime Museum before it was gifted to CVHS, where it sat covered on the center’s back porch. Over the years, the miniature boats had cracked and the diorama was in need of overall repair.

Its refurbishment was made possible by a monetary award in January from the Anna Maria Chamber of Commerce.

“It did sit here for a while and we thought we have to do something with it, and we weren’t able to do it,” Rodgers said. “So with that award, I contacted the Anna Maria Artists’ Guild and Judy Vazquez happened to answer the phone and the next day Judy and Luann Widergren were here and said they wanted to do it.”

Rodgers said the artists lovingly worked on the project day and night.

“Judy is a mosaic artist, so she had this idea to jazz it up. She had this idea for broken glass, and added paint and sparkle,” Widergren said. “It needed some sprucing up and I tried to restore the boats and added some vintage colors. For the fish camp, this is architecturally what you would have seen.”

Susynne McElrone, a volunteer at CVHS, and a former commercial fisher in Alaska, discussed the three mullet fishing methods represented on the diorama.

“I would invite everyone to come up close and see the details here and see what strikes you, the shore, the nets, the fishermen, the stories behind this and the love that went into it,” she said.

The Cortez Cultural Center is located at 1655 Cortez Road W. and is open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cortez founded on mullet

Cortez founded on mullet

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Community News, Cortez.

CORTEZ – A visit by Dr. Angela Collins to the Cortez Cultural Center furthered the organization’s mission to “preserve the past and protect the future.”

The University of Florida Sea Grant marine extension agent told visitors last Thursday all about mullet, the reason Cortez was founded in the late 1880s, and still its most profitable crop.

Fisheries are part of Florida’s second-largest economic driver, agriculture, Collins told a group of about 25 visitors, many of them tourists, supporting the state’s largest industry.

Collins quizzed visitors about why mullet jump. It could be to rid themselves of parasites, or because they like it, people ventured. Scientifically, no answer has been discovered, but scientists have learned that when you see a fish jump in Florida, nine times out of 10, it’s a mullet, she said.

The fish can live to be 13 years old, are scavengers, and it’s tough to catch them with hook and line.

As a result, ancient tribes in Florida used gill nets to catch the fish, using coconuts as floats and shells to weigh them down, and herding them into dead-end canals to have fresh fish close at hand, Collins said.

Cuban fishermen traveled to Cortez to catch mullet, especially during Lent in February and March, when demand was particularly high since many Catholics eat fish on Fridays in Lent when other meat is forbidden.

In the late 1960s, the mullet fishery shifted more to roe – fish eggs – than the fish itself, due to the high prices it brought in foreign markets. Mullet became known as “Gulf of Mexico gold,” Collins said.

“Sailfish is the state fish of Florida,” she said. “It should be mullet.”

Gill nets continued to be used until 1995, when voters passed a state Constitutional Amendment banning them, believing mullet fishing was depleting mullet and other bycatch species caught in mullet nets. Mullet fishermen now rely on different types of smaller nets, she said.

Cortez is special, Collins said, with its status on the National Register of Historic Places, its 95-acre FISH Preserve on Sarasota Bay and some descendants of original settlers from Carteret County, North Carolina still living in the village.

As a working waterfront on very valuable Florida property, Collins said, “There is no place left like Cortez in Florida.”

Mullet fishing tournament Winner

Jeffries wins mullet tournament

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Environment, Fishing, Outdoors.

CORTEZ – Cortez resident Kenny Jeffries won the Fifth Annual Flippin’ Mullet Sports Bar Mullet Fishing Tournament at the Swordfish Grill in Cortez on Sunday, Nov. 18.

Jeffries was the overall tournament winner with a combined weight of 21.10 pounds for his five largest mullets. For this, he won a $100 Swordfish Grill gift card and $120 cash. He also won the largest fish award for his 4.88-pound mullet, which earned him another $100 Swordfish Grill gift card for catching the biggest fish.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Jeffries, a commercial fisherman from Cortez.

Jeffries fished with his friend, Brandon Ison.

In anticipation of mullet season soon kicking into high gear, Jeffries said, “We’re for the roe to grow in the fish so we can go out and get them.”

“Big Dan” Kennison finished second with a combined weight of 16.53 pounds of mullet. For this, he won a $50 gift card and a shirt.

The smallest fish of the day was 2.61 pounds, caught by Preston Rowden whose combined catch was 15.21 pounds. He won a hat and $20.

“It feels awesome that I’m even here, but next year I’m gonna take it all,” Rowden said.

The mullet were caught with cast nets.

The tournament was organized by Swordfish Grill manager Greg Koeper and bar manager Brandon Rolland.

Bobby Martin won the raffle prize that was a cooler filled with liquor bottles.

Some of the tournament proceeds will be donated to the local Fishing For Freedom chapter.

When addressing the crowd, General Manager Bob Slicker described mullet as a “super fish” because of its variety of uses. Patrons were treated to free samples of fried mullet, fried mullet roe and fried mullet gizzards during the awards ceremony.

After the contest, Slicker expounded on the virtues of mullet.

“It’s an exciting fish. People think mullet are bottom-feeders, but they aren’t, and they have gizzards, so they process their food much like a chicken does, which is unique for a fish. They sell the gizzards overseas and people love them,” he said. “Their meat is high in protein and they’re also looking at its medicinal uses.

“Mullet roe is selling in Italy for $110 to $180 an ounce. They smoke it and do a slight shaving at high-end restaurants. Mullet roe is so high in protein that you can’t eat a lot of it, but it’s a great, strong, smoky flavor, and it just takes a little bit. Cortezian mullet is known around the world as being the best.”

He said Cortez fisherman make $7 to $13 for a pound roe.

“We use the male fish as bait. We use the whole mullet and also sell it as chum,” Slicker added.

“It’s too early to tell” what impact the red tide might have on mullet season, he said. “It doesn’t look like there’s as many fish out there, but they’re as big as they’ve ever been. The ones that got trapped in the red tide died, but a lot of them moved. They’ve spotted the mullet in different spots where the red tide hasn’t been,” Slicker said.

Toy drive

The Swordfish Grill is currently doing a toy drive to assist those in the panhandle city of Port St. Joe who were impacted by Hurricane Michael.

“We brought up a bunch of donated items up there and found out they didn’t have Halloween candy so we got together and handed out 450 Halloween bags. When it comes to Christmas, we thought we’d continue the toy drive we started at the Stone Crab Festival. All month, if people bring toys here, we’ll get them up there,” he said.