Severn dusk mullet corridors
Aust and Northwick: ~1,400 ha of restored flats steering dusk mullet runs
At Aust and Northwick, roughly 1,400 ha of recreated saltmarsh has reshaped evening migration corridors for flathead mullet along the Severn Estuary. Tidal ranges up to 14 metres pile prey into shallows; mullet, reaching 50–70 cm and 2–4 kg, push into 0.5–2.0 m channels and slip into chalk‑stream mouths such as the Frome, the Test and Wilton Beck at dusk, keyed to pulses of amphipods and small crustaceans.
Restoration by sediment reprofiling, tidal‑exchange facilitation and vegetation management has opened gravelly and clean sandbank subtypes that were once too unstable. Maerl beds and eelgrass now lock sediment, feeding benthic diversity; sheltered nursery zones concentrate juveniles while adults exploit stable troughs at low water.
How anglers and ecology meet
On weekends a growing UK angling community—roughly 120,000 active fishers—targets estuarine mullet, pike and chalk‑stream trout. Practical rigs mirror the runs: 10–12 lb fluorocarbon line, a 2–4 oz sinker, size 6–8 hook, and soft plastic or live bait fished along the mouth troughs at dusk. Anglers learn to watch tidal windows and the lee of warths for the tightest runs.
Aust warths display decadal terracing—four distinct marsh layers formed over many decades—creating the heterogeneous edges mullet favour. At lowering light the silver wedge of a mullet run is unmistakable: fish threading eelgrass channels, sand flicking from tails, lines cutting the mirror where the Frome meets the tide.