Grunter Flies

[noweeds]

I have caught many grunter in a small estuary in EL on a fly rod and small spinning reel using one split shot, a number 1 hook and sand prawn. I stand on the bank and the spotties litteraly tail all around you. I just flick the prawn past them and twitch it back.....vas! I know of many guys who regularly catch spotties there on fly. But they are tricky little devils!

[fish]

Hi Kevin,

The body is pre-manufactured by using silicone and polar plus between two sheets of plastic, this is flattened by using a round object flattening the "dough". Underbody is lead and dubbing and foam. Legs is spanflex/silicone

I use a 12 ft. leader tapering into a 8lb. flourocarbon tippet, as far as I can remember MC used a leader up to 18ft. long tapering into 8lb. Flourocarbon.

If you look at a grunter's head which makes out almost 25% of the total body length, there has to be alot happening inside there. The senses of detecting smell and hearing/vibration place a huge roll in detecting food. Casting bait where the hook penetrates the organisms body and releasing juices place a vital roll in grunter detecting bait, hence it is successful. Interseting is a grunter I caught in December, with a live 30cm.+ bloodworm in its stomach, which was still alive, obviously the grunter sucked it from its hole.

Knowing a studying grunter is the key to success I believe. Why does a grunter tail on a specific prawn hole, while there is hundreds of holes allover? Why would a grunter blow an organism out of its hole into a cloud a mud, rather than sucking it out of the hole? Why does a grunter "tail" with its tail slapping rather vigourisly on the surface? Why does the grunter "flee" from the tailing area to return more than often to the same spot a minute later?

In some of the Eastern Cape estuaries you get swimming prawns, when the grunter will rely more on the visual aspect of hunting, mud prawn migrations will also trigger more visual hunting. For most part we aren't offered these scenarios in the Western Cape estuaries, it's either targeting fish on the drop offs, in the channels or tailing fish.

[Stevegse]

Last year a friend and I were at Mbotyi and fished in the estuary. Not having a clue what was in the estuary and because there was very little water coming in at high tide we assumed there was not much around. After 2 days of fishing with small fly's with no luck I changed to a fairly big orange & green deciever just before we were leaving to go back home. On the 3rd cast I was into a small (about 0.75 kg) salmon or kob as it's called down that way. My friend quickly changed to the same fly and to our shock and delight landed a grunter also about 0.75kg.
We had both heard how difficult grunter are to catch on fly and here we were with one that we were not even trying to catch.

[Herman Jooste]

We had both heard how difficult grunter are to catch on fly and here we were with one that we were not even trying to catch.

Hey Steve, I hope I have the same good fortune when I fish Uvongo this weekend

[Chris Shelton]

Hi Kevin,

The body is pre-manufactured by using silicone and polar plus between two sheets of plastic, this is flattened by using a round object flattening the "dough". Underbody is lead and dubbing and foam. Legs is spanflex/silicone

I use a 12 ft. leader tapering into a 8lb. flourocarbon tippet, as far as I can remember MC used a leader up to 18ft. long tapering into 8lb. Flourocarbon.

If you look at a grunter's head which makes out almost 25% of the total body length, there has to be alot happening inside there. The senses of detecting smell and hearing/vibration place a huge roll in detecting food. Casting bait where the hook penetrates the organisms body and releasing juices place a vital roll in grunter detecting bait, hence it is successful. Interseting is a grunter I caught in December, with a live 30cm.+ bloodworm in its stomach, which was still alive, obviously the grunter sucked it from its hole.

Knowing a studying grunter is the key to success I believe. Why does a grunter tail on a specific prawn hole, while there is hundreds of holes allover? Why would a grunter blow an organism out of its hole into a cloud a mud, rather than sucking it out of the hole? Why does a grunter "tail" with its tail slapping rather vigourisly on the surface? Why does the grunter "flee" from the tailing area to return more than often to the same spot a minute later?

In some of the Eastern Cape estuaries you get swimming prawns, when the grunter will rely more on the visual aspect of hunting, mud prawn migrations will also trigger more visual hunting. For most part we aren't offered these scenarios in the Western Cape estuaries, it's either targeting fish on the drop offs, in the channels or tailing fish.

You have raised some very interesting and valid points Philip.....worthy of repeating and pondering over a few times

[KevinC]

Agreed- one cant really improve on an 18ft leader!
I'll try tie up some of those prawns and see how they come out- they really look good. Its also interesting to hear about a 30cm bloodworm you found in the grunters stomach Philip! Thats one big thing to suck down- and I doubt we would be able to immitate one of that size!

We could start another debate here regarding how ethical it is to scent flies, but maybe some of those Berkley power scent sprays that art lure anglers use might help to make our flies seem a little more edible?

[Chris Shelton]

Agreed- one cant really improve on an 18ft leader!
I'll try tie up some of those prawns and see how they come out- they really look good. Its also interesting to hear about a 30cm bloodworm you found in the grunters stomach Philip! Thats one big thing to suck down- and I doubt we would be able to immitate one of that size!

We could start another debate here regarding how ethical it is to scent flies, but maybe some of those Berkley power scent sprays that art lure anglers use might help to make our flies seem a little more edible?

For that matter, one could tie a piece of white muscle onto a long shank hook and fassion it into a prawn......easy enough to do on the water, no vice required. Bit of ghost cotton, and bingo, instant scented, prawn immitation!

[Herman Jooste]

For that matter, one could tie a piece of white muscle onto a long shank hook and fassion it into a prawn......easy enough to do on the water, no vice required. Bit of ghost cotton, and bingo, instant scented, prawn immitation!

Or as was said elsewhere in this esteemed site, tie a fly sparingly enough to allow you to thread a real prawn over it

[Gogga]

Here are a few Prawn / worm patterns that I use when fishing the flats, some may help with those Grunter.

When I lived in PE - I fished my arse off for the legendary Swartkops Tigers - had two in five years and believe me that wasn’t for lack of trying. Perhaps one day I will return to exact revenge



http://www.illawarraflyfishers.com.a...ralo_prawn.htm

http://www.illawarraflyfishers.com.a.../bloodworm.htm

http://www.illawarraflyfishers.com.a...uralo_worm.htm


All the best
Mike

[KevinC]

I like the bloodworm pattern- quite clever.