While we were on the Breede river last week I decided to try some different approaches to catching grunter. We were there over a neap tide, so the currents weren’t particularly strong and the water was quite clear and warm.
I was there to target grunter on topwater lures, but that type of fishing was mostly limited to the period around high tide. This left some hours during the day to try some other techniques.
I decided to pump some fresh mudprawn and figure out the most productive method of fishing these tasty tit bits for spotted grunter.
I chatted to some of the local bait anglers and they told me that the fishing was very slow. They were spending a lot of time sitting at anchor with fresh mud prawn baits out and were getting very little action.
I gave it all some thought and came to the conclusion that I must rig the prawns live and present them to the fish in the most natural possible way. I used my lightest rig, a Penn Allegiance 3 medium action spinning rod, with a Penn Clash 2000 reel, loaded with 15lb Spider Wire Stealth Smooth braid and a leader of 10lb fluorocarbon. I rigged the prawns on a small circle hook, putting the hook through the hard part of the head carapace, which doesn’t impair the prawn at all. I wasn’t using a swivel, so I clamped a small piece of split shot to my line, about 40cm away from the hook. I decided that the most natural presentation of the prawn would be if we were drifting with the current as opposed to sitting at anchor. That way the prawn would drift along the bottom at the same speed as the current, like a live prawn outside of its burrow would.
This worked well until the wind picked up. Once the wind blew, it pushed the boat and changed our drift. I found myself thinking about a heavier weight but wasn’t keen to go heavier as this would drag more on the bottom and hinder the prawn’s natural action in the water.
I decided to deploy the canvas drift anchor in order to minimize the wind’s effect on us. This worked really well. It straightened our drift and slowed it to the same speed as the current. The original weight now got the prawn down easily again.
I was only flicking the prawn a few meters away, then pulling some line off the spool and feeding it out, so that the bait was drifting about 20m down current of us. I couldn’t try for a longer cast, as the prawn would then fly off the hook.
I was very pleased to land a few nice grunter – along with a few little guys. They would just suck the prawn in and swim off. I had the reel drag set as light as it could go without the spool coming off the reel shaft. The line would start peeling off quickly and I would just tighten up the drag and the fish would be hooked. I felt that the technique was working well, particularly in comparison to the results that the guys sitting at anchor were getting at the time.
It was pretty relaxing, and a fine way to pass the time that was not ideal for lure fishing. I am definitely going to do some more of that sort of fishing during the down times on estuaries, it was plenty of fun and I would like to fine tune the technique further. Those grunter give a really good account of themselves on light tackle.
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