When fishing with live mullet what is the best way to hook the mullet? I have been hooking them through the top of the tail right about where their anal opening is. I have had minimal success doing this though only landing a few reds. What method works best for you guys? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I don't get the chance to use live mullet very often, but I've always hooked them through the collar - behind the gills & gillplate. They stay alive longer & more hook point is exposed.

3/4 of the way down, upper half of the body.

my personal favorite way to hook a live mullet is through the lip with a kahle or circle hook

they will stay alive longer that way than any other way imho, and they will flap their tail more because they dont have a hook in their body.

just put the hook in through the bottom lip, and have the hook come out the top lip, but be careful to not get too close to between the eyes or you'll hit the brain and kill 'em

I do mullet like I do Minnows thru the eyes. Seems they move better that way

Two good ways to hook mullet. Through the eyes is not one of them. For a good free swimming mullet, you rig like D_G stated. The other way is to hook them above the pee hole. When you hook fish above the pee hole, they tend to swim in an upward manner. Through the nose will allow the fish to swim freely. The only time I hook above the pee hole is when I am using a carolina rig, this keeps my weight on the bottom and the fish swimming just off the bottom because he will be swimming up. THis method also works great when hooking croaker. The croaker will swim just off the bottom right in the trouts target area.

I think that it depends on what the situation is and what rig that you are using. When I fish for flounder, I hook from bottom lip through upper lip and retrieve slowly on the bottom below an egg sinker.

If your working them the lips for sure.


Just throwing one out or drifting it....the eyes are nice if you can miss the bran, the crabs can't yank them off...

but they can bite them in half, lol

At least there's still bait on the line and not a clean hook. I didn't say it was the best solution but it's better than nothing.