The mullet run is an annual tradition in Port Stephens, but this year’s has been described as “extraordinary”.
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Commercial fishermen have hauled about four tonne of mullet out of Final Bay since Saturday.
Four wheel drives were seen hauling net after net of mullet out of the Bay and up Fingal Beach throughout the April 22-23 weekend.
Mullet were still being collected, in large nets, out of Fingal Bay on Monday.
Port Stephens fishing identity John “Stinker” Clarke described the week leading up the run as “the most extraordinary in recent times”.
“Huge schools of mullet entered Fingal Bay and because the weather has been so stable, there were close to no changes in the weather pattern, the fish have stayed in the Bay,” he said.
“One school measure about 200 metres long and 40 metres wide.
“In that school there were numerous sharks feasting on the fish.
“It was a sharks’ delight.”
Fingal Beach was closed to swimming last Tuesday due to a shark sighting.
An unknown number of sharks were seen in the Bay throughout last week, attracted by the schools of fish.
The sharks were varied in species but many spotted were reportedly grey nurse sharks with the odd bull and great white swimming into the Bay to eat the fish.
The mullet run is an annual tradition.
Commercial fishermen collect the mullet, known as travelling fish, using large nets.
Send you photos of the Fingal Bay mullet run to the Examiner. Email them to news@pse.fairfax.com.au.
