THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Now, suddenly, with an easier way of catching them, they were starting to turn up all over the show,
with specimens well in excess of 8 pounds having been caught from an ever expanding geographical
range from Llangenech in Wales to Oulton Broad, and not unexpectedly the Channel Islands too.
In fact, Guernsey now sits very much in pole position. Greg Whitehead is keeping the ragworm baited
spinner technique alive from his own boat 'Bluefin', with two records to himself and Ollie Stensen in
two days during 2015.
Cork harbour in south west Ireland also has a population. Only the Scot's it seems have yet to record
the species.
GOLDEN GREY MULLET Liza aurata
Bucket List status – result
It's difficult sometimes to be sure about the catchability status of some species of fish, and in that regard,
the golden grey mullet could well be one. A fish which at a glance could very easily be mistaken for
the visually similar and not quite as rare thin lipped grey mullet which seems to prefer harbours and
estuaries, as opposed to the more open surf beaches favoured by golden greys.
Even so, there almost certainly will have been some honest but needless mis-counting, which is a pity
really, because while the thin lipped grey and golden grey are very similar fish with two widely spaced
dorsal fins, small lips, and several darker longitudinal stripes over a blue to grey back and upper flanks,
it doesn't take a lot of effort to separate one from the other.
As the name suggests, golden greys have golden spots on the cheek and gill cover. But I've also had
thin lips with the same sort of marks which I was convinced were golden greys, only to find out by
checking the length of the pectoral fin that they were not.
190