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Mullet fishermen reporting a good season

Mullet fishermen reporting a good season

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

CORTEZ – Fish house employees and fishermen are calling this mullet season one of the best in recent memory as Cortez fish houses are filling up with mullet brought in by private fishermen. 

Two of those fishermen, Seth Miller and Wyatt Walker, were pulling in mullet for two straight days to sell at one of the two the Cortez fish houses: Cortez Bait & Seafood and A.P. Bell Fish Co. 

Mullet fishermen reporting a good season
Fishermen Wyatt Walker and Seth Miller sell their haul of mullet to Cortez Bait & Seafood. – Leslie Lake | Sun

“We didn’t sleep for the last two days,” Miller said on Dec. 31. “It’s been pretty good this year. We’ve been catching fish in the bay and offshore. We caught some up north last night.”

Miller said it seemed like the season got off to a late start and could go until February. 

Private fishermen such as Miller and Walker can be seen in local waters pulling up nets full of mullet. Once their boats are loaded, they’re driven to either Cortez Bait & Seafood or A.P. Bell Fish Co., where the catches are weighed and the fishermen are paid. 

“I’ve been doing this for 17 years and I would say this is the best mullet season I’ve seen in at least 10 years,” said Linda, an employee of Cortez Bait & Seafood, as she oversaw the weighing of the fish brought in by local fishermen. “There’s been no hurricanes and no red tide, so I think that’s why it’s been really good.”

She said on Jan. 1 that Cortez Bait & Seafood was taking a break for several days before accepting any more mullet.

“We’re so full right now,” she said. “We have no place to put any more fish. We’ll probably start up again next Monday (Jan. 5).”

Linda said the prices paid to the fishermen fluctuate, but a premium is paid for mullet with red roe and the rate was currently at $1.30 per pound. The red roe mullet is sent out to European and Asian markets. 

Mullet fishermen reporting a good season
The mullet with red roe is the most desirable and is shipped to European and Asian markets. – Leslie Lake | Sun

Karen Bell, owner of AP Bell Fish Co., closed on Jan. 1 to give her employees the day off, but that fish house started accepting fish again on Jan. 2.

“We have fish staged in coolers right now,” Bell said on Jan. 1. “Tomorrow we will be taking fish from fishermen who have been selling to us this year.”

Adult striped mullet typically weigh about three pounds. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has strict guidelines about how they can be caught.

“The use of any gear other than cast nets (no more than 14 feet long, and no more than two per vessel), beach or haul seines (no larger than 500 square feet, and no more than two, may be fished per vessel), hook and line gear; and by spearing is prohibited,” according to FWC.

Fishermen report slow mullet season

Fishermen report slow mullet season

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Fishing, Outdoors.

CORTEZ – With peak mullet season winding down, local fishermen hoping to cash in by selling their catches at the fish houses are reporting a lesser harvest than in recent years.

“We’ve had one good day in the last two weeks,” said one fisherman, who asked not to be identified. “I don’t know what it is that’s killing the seagrass, but the three of us have been everywhere and the fish just aren’t there.”

According to the University of Florida IFAS website, “Mullet can tolerate a wide range of salinities and can be found in fresh or saltwater. Their diet consists of bacteria and single-celled algae found attached to plants. They pick at the bottom, and scrape seagrasses consuming these.

Sarasota Bay Estuary Program Executive Director Dave Tomasko weighed in on possible factors that could account for a slow fishing season.

“There have been quite a few recent hits to our water quality along with those living resources that depend on adequate water quality,” Tomasko wrote in a Dec. 26 email to The Sun.

He said Sarasota Bay was impacted by four events that adversely affected the bay.

“In June, we had the highest amount of hourly rainfall on record (going back 50 years) due to a tropical wave (not even an organized storm),” he wrote. “The amount of rainfall was thought to be so rare as to only occur every 500 years or so.”

Tomasko wrote that in August there was another “one in 100-year” rainfall event during Hurricane Debby, which caused widespread flooding in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

“In September, we had Hurricane Helene, which gave us the biggest storm surge recorded in Sarasota and Tampa Bay’s history – in most places,” he wrote. “Then, in October, we had a Category 3 hurricane (Milton) hit us. Those storms brought us massive amounts of stormwater runoff, particularly that June rain event, and then with Debby.”

Tomasko noted that in 2024, there was more rainfall than average in a series of intense storms.

“That may be indicative of conditions that are more likely to occur over the next 30 years than was the case in the last 30 years,” he wrote. “Our air is warmer now and so is our water temperature. Both of those are expected to produce conditions that are more likely to cause intensification of tropical weather. Which means we need to get our wastewater and stormwater infrastructure to be more resilient to a changing climate, because summers like 2024 are more likely to occur over the next few decades than was the case in the last few decades.”

Mullet season in full swing

Mullet season in full swing

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

CORTEZ – It might not be for joy, but the mullet are definitely jumping.

Spawning season and cast net-wielding fishermen anxious to make some Christmas money are a formula for a busy mullet season at John Banyas’ Cortez Bait and Seafood fish house.

“It’s mostly local people bringing the mullet in to us,” Banyas said. “They’re out there castnetting closer to the cold fronts.”

Banyas, a fourth-generation fisherman from Cortez, owns Swordfish Grill & Tiki Bar, N.E. Taylor Boatworks, Killer Bait and Cortez Bait and Seafood.

He has seven boats in his fleet but says he relies on people fishing from their own boats to bring the mullet in.

The catches have varying degrees of value, with the real treasure being females with red roe. The egg sack from the gray mullet can be made into bottarga. The salted, cured fish roe pouch is considered a delicacy in Europe and Asia.

“The females have the red roe and the males white,” he said. “They’re all desirable, but we pay more for the red.”

On Dec. 15, Banyas said they were paying $1.60 per pound for the females with red roe and 30 cents a pound for others.

“There’s definitely money to be made,” he said, picking up a good-sized mullet. “This one alone could be more than $5.”

The fish are brought in by land or sea. They’re processed and cut, then packaged and frozen in large walk-in freezers before being shipped off to the wholesale market. He said that his facility processes thousands of pounds per day.

“We ship out all over,” Banyas said. “Italy, Taiwan. Mullet is used for crab bait or food.”

Mullet fishing has a long history in Cortez. “The North Carolina families came in the 1880s with the hope that the mullet and the sweat of their brow would bring a better life,” according to a publication from the Cortez Village Historical Society. “This unique community of 20 extended families with a love of fishing in their hearts has survived on hard work, fierce pride and a plentiful supply of fish.”

A quote from the late Cortez fisherman Ralph “Pig” Fulford sums up the importance of mullet to the Cortez fishing village.

“Mullet. That’s it. Some folks say fish smell. I say it smells like money.”