17/10/11 Arghhhhhhhhhhh!!! Two Lost Mullet!

Pure frustration this one and, it goes to show what a fine line there is between success and failure when targeting mullet. I fancied getting just one more before the end , which is nigh. West bank was the choice of venue-the tide was slack low , the water nicely coloured and there were plenty of mullet showing if you looked carefully. I didn't have a lot of time and just wanted to catch one fish, and then I'd pack up and get on with my work.
Mash in the swim, and literally first cast, I had a very delicate bite in the still water conditions. These finicky bites continued constantly and I just could not hit the buggers. I've seen this so many times before. They've got time to play with the bait and for no reason that's exactly what they do. You'd be forgiven for thinking that they were small fish but I knew otherwise and this would soon prove to be the case.
Eventually I took a gamble on a bite where the float was just gently gliding along the surface and , thank goodness, finally connected. A very powerful fight from, what looked like when it surfaced, a really good fish..............and then it was gone. Slipped the bloody hook. I was shattered but there was worse to come.
Ten minutes later, and still in the same swim, I connected again with another really powerful fish which tore off 30-40yds up river before I could even slow it down.......and then...again....it all went slack.
I could have cried, and indeed would have if I hadn't just smiled knowingly to myself and considered how many times this has happened to me with these fish in the past, especially at this time of year.
I don't like to estimate the size of lost fish as invariably they are bigger than those landed, but let's just say that they're likely to have been a half decent size. Arghhhhhhhhhhh!