A long-time fishing practice which is limited to a short season each year is currently open on some of Queensland’s most popular beaches. Members warn catching Mullet is a dying craft and one they're keen to keep alive for the next generation.
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00:00 Kings Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast is popular all year round, but in winter a
00:07 different crowd gathers as schools of mullet migrate north to spawn.
00:12 The run only lasts for around 8 weeks a year, sometimes it will go out to 10 weeks if the
00:18 temperature of the water doesn't drop fast enough.
00:21 From the beach, teams of licensed fishers wait for the right moment for hours and sometimes
00:26 days.
00:27 "It could be sun up to sun down and then on afterwards."
00:31 Once the fish start jumping from schools spawning in circles, it's time to act.
00:36 Catching them is a precise art as the mullet need to move into waters just off the beach,
00:41 away from the rocks.
00:43 "The net is polled in the back of the boat and as you go the boys hang on to it and it
00:48 just creates a semi-circle out round the fish and hook it up to the utes and try and get
00:53 them on the beach."
00:54 Sea mullet mostly live in estuaries and fresh water, catching them off the shore in nets
00:59 is only allowed for 4 months a year.
01:01 "Most of the fish are sold to commercial suppliers but bystanders lucky enough to see
01:07 a catch pulled in can buy the mullet fresh from the beach."
01:12 Fishers say with no new licenses being issued, the 100 year old tradition is a dying art,
01:18 but one that should continue.
01:20 "Everyone deserves fish, so from the person that's walking along here that has no idea
01:26 how to catch a fish, that's who I work for."
01:28 "I'd love to do it for the rest of their life."
01:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]