Fly Fishing for Spotted Grunter

[FlyCraft]

Another interesting scenario is when there are lots of estuarine round herring/silversides in an estuary. A farmer on the Breede told me this past weekend that he had seen how grunter actively eat these little fish on the banks.While at the Breede this past trip these little fish would hang just off the sea grass on the drop off and occasionally would scatter which probaly are Cape Moonies or little Leeries and elf. However there was no actual sighting of a chase and all predatory fish love eating these little fish. Might have also been grunter looking up and feeding.

Neil Hockley told me once that he was fishing the channel off Belvidere in Knysna, targeting skippies. He would fish rather high up in the water column and picked up, if I can remember correctly 3 grunter in deep water. These little fish can be very prolific in estuaries at this time of the season.

Another fly fisher caught a grunter under a strike indicator at De Mond, again in mid water, the fish was looking up. Looking at the position of the eye on the head, these fish are probably looking a lot more up and forward than what we think. However the head and body shape is designed to tilt and dislodge food in a current. The head's relative size to body length suggests a good sense of smell/sensitivity and also space to propel water and suck if needed.

The large pectoral fins suggest the fish are well adapted to tilt forward and upwards in the water column. And of course, the tail offers enough propulsion when hooked

[FlyCraft]

Just shows how much I think about grunter....

A floating/neutrally buoyant pattern in shallower water has a much softer entry, spooking less fish. Weighted patterns are presented when the fish is busy tailing or leading cruising fish over a longer distance. Bait fishing with a drifting bait or lightly weighted bait in deeper water catch a lot more fish. In my experience with bait fishing is to stand dead still and wait for the fish to come to you, if you need to move, do it at snail's pace.

Bear in mind, what I am suggesting is just my thoughts, for me it was a matter of everything starting to make sense recently. I have mentioned many a time before to fishing buddies, that is bloody frustrating when I can see loads of grunter tailing but there is still limited success with sinking fly patterns. I believe that when fish are visibly feeding around you, these fish should be relatively easy to catch and I believe they are.

This is probably fishing more blind in the vicinity of the activity than fishing straight at visible feeding fish.

[Korrie]

Just shows how much I think about grunter....

A floating/neutrally buoyant pattern in shallower water has a much softer entry, spooking less fish. Weighted patterns are presented when the fish is busy tailing or leading cruising fish over a longer distance. Bait fishing with a drifting bait or lightly weighted bait in deeper water catch a lot more fish. In my experience with bait fishing is to stand dead still and wait for the fish to come to you, if you need to move, do it at snail's pace.

Bear in mind, what I am suggesting is just my thoughts, for me it was a matter of everything starting to make sense recently. I have mentioned many a time before to fishing buddies, that is bloody frustrating when I can see loads of grunter tailing but there is still limited success with sinking fly patterns. I believe that when fish are visibly feeding around you, these fish should be relatively easy to catch and I believe they are.

This is probably fishing more blind in the vicinity of the activity than fishing straight at visible feeding fish.

As mentioned, awhile ago, there is a fly fisher, that likes to target the grunter with sinking lines and weightless patterns, And he has a lot of success.

[white death]

My own experiences is that the floating pattern creates some disturbance on the surface which in turn attracts the Grunter. The lighter deer hair patterns do not make as much disturbance when cast close to tailing Grunter. I try to pull the fly over the tailing Grunter as landing it on the tailing Grunter chases the fish. However when I hear about Grunter taking lures off the surface with a Zara Spook, it makes little sense to my logic of stealth as my surface retrieves are very subtle - and when I have retrieved faster to make more disturbance, the small Leeries attack the fly. I am coming to the conclusion that each estuary system has own little quirks that we will have to work out to catch these fish consistently. Swimming prawns in Swartkops now providing the pattern in PE.
In the 1990's we caught Grunter at Breede with Gilchristella in their stomachs.
Robin

[NeilRowe]

As mentioned, awhile ago, there is a fly fisher, that likes to target the grunter with sinking lines and weightless patterns, And he has a lot of success.

....and he uses a double handed strip as well.

[FlyCraft]

My own experiences is that the floating pattern creates some disturbance on the surface which in turn attracts the Grunter. The lighter deer hair patterns do not make as much disturbance when cast close to tailing Grunter. I try to pull the fly over the tailing Grunter as landing it on the tailing Grunter chases the fish. However when I hear about Grunter taking lures off the surface with a Zara Spook, it makes little sense to my logic of stealth as my surface retrieves are very subtle - and when I have retrieved faster to make more disturbance, the small Leeries attack the fly. I am coming to the conclusion that each estuary system has own little quirks that we will have to work out to catch these fish consistently. Swimming prawns in Swartkops now providing the pattern in PE.
In the 1990's we caught Grunter at Breede with Gilchristella in their stomachs.
Robin

I am convinced that some estuaries have similar characteristics, hence the fish's behaviour/feeding can vary. As an example, all the regular big cob rivers - Breede, Gouritz, Gamtoos have more a tacky/clay type of mud in big parts, oppose to a "muddy mud" if that makes sense. The landscape/river shore is also kind of similar.

Guys who landed 14 grunter recently on the Breede, fishing topwater lures mentioned that one retrieve can take up to 5 minutes, slowly twitching and then just dead drifting in-between.

[Korrie]

....and he uses a double handed strip as well.

No, double handed rods.

[FlyCraft]

Taking all of the above into account, when visible tailing fish are around in numbers, what makes sense is that tailing grunter are fish just in the process of dislodging food and not in the process of feeding. The feeding happens afterwards and often pods of grunter will work together, some will tail, some feed.

When single fish tails, the major feeding instict (hooking the fish opportunity) only kicks in when the fish returns, if the fly/bait is presented softly very soon afterwards the tailing activity or while it is happening there is also a good chance of a hookup, but often this is very difficult, almost impossible, due to factors of distance/wind direction etc.

[FlyCraft]

And evil eye pufferfish simply adores a floating prawn, klein ***kies They know when to be on the lookout...

[FlyCraft]

Philip

I have observed grunter chowing crabs in the Bitou River when the pushing tide starts flooding the grassy areas. They move from the channels to the grass covered flats, which are teeming with little crabs.

Hi Neil,

Apart from crabs in these areas, I know that Tim Reed had quite good success with grass shrimp patterns in the Bitou/Keurbooms system. These little shrimps are very prolific in many WC estuaries and swim around when water covers these areas. Quite often you can feel them nibbling around your legs when wading.

The crabs float when dead, but sit on the bottom when alive. I believe the challenge is the right presentation, with a floating line and sinking pattern, often the current's affect on the leader make a good presentation difficult when fishing a sinking pattern. There is too much drag on the leader and the fly doesn't present right. Also the the leaders presence vertically through the water column has a much bigger influence on the overall presentation (what the fish sees). Maybe a sinking line that sits on the bottom, short leader, will have a better presentation. Also the weight of the line will "set" the hook when a fish takes the fly. Sinking lines with certain specific fly presentations might be the way to go, only problem I foresee is the impact of the sinking line when casting to fish in shallow water, probably will spook lots more fish. Probably good to cast in a feeding area and just leave it, waiting for the fish to come to the fly.