Fishing- large mullet by SSlatter
For all those sport fishing aficionados, they don't come much better, pound-for-pound on light tackle, than the thicklip grey mullet, or "muge" as it is known locally. Now, Marseilles Vieux Port and Frioul harbour used to have a resident head of mullet, but over the last 10 years they seem to have disappeared.. but fear not, dear angler, all is not lost. Along the coast at a town called Istres are two disused reservoirs which both hold a head of very large landlocked grey mullet. The two reservoirs are known as L'Etang de Berre, and L'Etang de l'Olivier. I would not recommend fishing L'Etang de Berre if you have limited time. This reservoir is so big that you could spend a month fishing here and not see one mullet. However, L'Etang de l'Olivier is much smaller, and you have a chance of connecting with one of these stupendous fish if you start off in the area known as "Jardin de M.Paume", which is an area of the bank which has been landscaped and laid to lawn. It's very easy to find, once you locate the reservoir. Place yourself on the lawned area, catapult out a few freebie floating crusts, and you may immediately be lucky and see some action. I would recommend a 13 foot float rod set up, 8 pound line, and a controller float with a piece of crust as bait. These fish run large, up to even 5 kilos if you're lucky, so make sure your tackle is in good order. If you connect with one of these fish, your tackle and playing skills will be stretched to the limit, so be warned. One important note: as a committed "catch and release" angler, I implore you to please put any fish back alive. Do NOT kill these fish. A mullet is very slow-growing. Even a 5 pounder (2.5 kilos approximately) can take up to 15 years to reach that size.. so any fish removed from either of these reservoirs will take years to be replaced, and that is even if they reproduce here, which is not known, but doubtful. Enjoy your fishing.
