On 30th December, while
on holiday in the Eastern Cape, I had seen several grunter feeding on the sand
banks in the Goukamma river mouth, so I decided to try my luck with them. The first order of business was
collecting bait so we made a turn at the Knysna Lagoon during low tide and
managed to get a few nice mud prawns. With the bait sorted, I grabbed 2 long, light
spinning rods and headed down to the mouth. I scouted the area
for a bit and found an area where the fish were tailing.
I am not a grunter guru, so I
started out by using the standard running sinker rig I use in the Richards Bay
harbour. I threaded a mud prawn onto the Mustad #1 silver bait holder hook and
fired it out onto the edge of the bank where the fish were feeding. I sat there
watching as several fish swam over and past my bait without showing any
interest... something was not right. I quietly waded out about 40m onto the
bank and found a small channel that was holding a few smaller fish. I cast the
bait out and freespooled as I returned to the side where I put the rod in the
holder. As I picked up the second rod, I had a pull on the first. After a short
fight, I managed to catch my first white steenbras. I removed the hook and released
it. I rerigged and put the bait back into the same channel but with no luck.
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| Grunter in the shallows |
The mouth of the river was
closed, so there was no tidal movement. The water was also crystal clear and
shallow, so the fish were super skittish. To make things worse, the grunter
were swimming with shoals of mullet which, being at the bottom of the food
chain, would spook for their own shadows and in turn spook the grunter. I had
to rethink this setup. I removed the sinker and swivel from the one rod and joined
a 2 meter section of 6kg fluorocarbon. To that, I attached the #1 hook. I waded
out with a fresh mud prawn and found a few fish on the bank. I cast the prawn
out in the area and freespooled as I quietly walked back to the side. As I
reached the side, the line started running off the reel. I fed it a bit then
hooked up and fought a nice grunter to the side. It had swallowed the bait so I
decided to keep it. Nothing like fresh grunter fillets. I was chuffed that I
had managed to finally get one. I rigged up the second rod and set a bait on
the other side of the bank. It did not take long before I went tight to another
similar sized grunter. This one also joined the first in the cooler. Just when
I thought I had figured the grunter trick out, they stopped feeding... there
was something else to this game...
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| Double up on grunter |
With all the wading I was doing,
the fish had moved off the banks and were no longer tailing. I scanned the area
and saw another bank further up the river where there were a few fish. I packed
up my gear and quietly moved closer. At this new spot, I was out of the wind so
I could see everything in the water, and everything could see me... I presented
a bait to a small shoal of about 5 grunter, but none bit. This went on for 45
minutes before I thought of something else I would try. Looking at the prawn in
the water, I could clearly see the silver hook running through it. Also, the prawn
had died due to the hook exiting the head. The final thing I noticed was that
due to the long casts I was making, the bait curled back onto the bite of the
hook resulting in a less than ideal presentation. I changed the hook to a black
chemically sharpened bait holder. When rigging the bait, I half threaded the
hook through the tail and then twisted the prawn and allowed the hook to exit
its back. This allowed the bait to remain straight on the hook and to stay
alive... game on!
 |
| Grunter dinner on the table |
I quietly waded out about 20m and
flicked the bait into the path of the feeding fish then returned to the bank
and put the rod into the holder to set up the second rod. When I looked up, the
line went tight and the rod bent. I managed to get another nice grunter into
the cooler. I was sure I was onto something with these tricks. With 2 rods
rigged up, I set one bait short to the right and the second one about 40m out
on the left. While wading back after setting the long line, I saw the short
line go tight. The long rod quickly went into the holder so that I could fight
the fish. It was another nice grunter which was giving me a nice fight close to
the side. I happened to look at the other rod in the holder and the line pulled
tight bending the rod... I had a double. I switched rods in the holder and
fought the second fish to the side. Both were nice fish and with these last 2,
I had my quota for the day and headed home knowing I had cracked the code on
the day. I did not go back to the spot again, but who knows, maybe next year.
I was up on the flybridge
checking out the scene when I saw a swirl and splash behind the centre rigger
lure. As I shouted, the rigger popped but the reel remained silent. I scurried
down the steps hoping to tease the fish a bit, but before I could get there,
the reel started running. The lines were cleared in no time and Elsa took the
chair. The fish did not jump, but took a good amount of line on the surface, so
we had an idea as to what it might be. After explaining how to use the chair
and harness, Elsa brought the fish closer. The leader came up and we could
confirm it to be a shortbill spearfish. This was the first billfish that Elsa had caught and for it to be one of the rarest billfish, made it even more special. After a few photos, we released the
fish and set the lures again. 
