Fly Fishing for Mullet

Mullet Fever

The mullet season is here in the Baltic, and this excellent DVD just turns the mullet fever up several degrees.

I have just been out fishing the past couple of days - both days in pursuit of thick-lipped mullet, a fish that we see in still growing numbers every summer and autumn here in the Baltic.
Brian Kjaer, an old friend on mine, has been hunting mullet systematically for many years. The rest of us just fish for them when they are there by coincidence. Brian has targeted them very intensely.

That has led to an expertise in the area, which to my knowledge is unsurpassed by anybody, and Brian and his girlfriend Jane have now produced this DVD, which sums up most of Brian's knowledge and shows some great mullet fishing footage too.

The DVD is one long drive through a great type of fishing with lots of action, lots of tips and lots of sheer fun in fishing. After having watched this DVD I cannot wait to get out hunting mullet again.
Brian hooks about 20-30 fish in this DVD alone and gets more than I care to count to hand. He also manages to show different fishing methods, flies and a bunch of tips.

Brian Kjaer's very obvious enthusiasm is a fantastic asset to the DVD. His excitement when he sees fish and his disappointment when he can't hook them, makes the production stand out from many usual fly fishing videos, where the main characters are often very impersonal and neutral in their appearance. Not so here. There's no doubt that most of these scenes are very genuine and that the action and Brian's comments is just what was in the can when the day was over.

Now, don't misunderstand me and think that this is a random collection of film clips. That is not the case. The DVD is well structured, generally well edited and has a lot of very calm and useful scenes where Brian Kjaer tells you how to target these elusive fish. A lot of knowledge is passed on regarding flies, leaders, casting and much more. Both the seasoned mullet angler and the green one will learn a lot here.

But I still love the action scenes best! There are so many hook-ups, so many fights and so many landings that you suddenly believe that you yourself can catch a mullet.
I at least am sure that I get one every time I cast to one. When Brian can, so can I!
But I still have to land one... I have fished for them the last 2-3 years, and last season was my best with four hookups - all fish lost. But that's a lot better than the season before that, where I spooked hundreds of fish, but didn't hook a single. This year is going to be different, not least because of the inspiration from this DVD.

The geist and inspiration is what makes this production special. And that enables me to forgive some of its flaws. This is not a top-notch professional production.
You will see the photographer's shadow, see the microphone pass a corner of the picture and hear a lot of wind noise on the sound track.
You will also see some peculiar cuts and some mixed in images of flies, which are not exactly state of the art.

But it's easy to forget that when one big, fat mullet after the other is caught in beautiful settings.
It's easy to suppress when great underwater footage adds to the visualization of this fish and how to fish it.
And it's easy to get sucked into the DVD and get infected severely with the galloping mullet fever when Brian sneaks in on his knees and casts to very large fish clearly visible in a foot of water only a few feet from the shore.

The DVD was originally a Danish production, but has been re-edited and subtitled in several languages including English, German, French as well as Swedish. So foreigners can now be smitten too when they see what a fantastic fishing there is to be found on the Baltic coasts.