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Targeting Grunter

By Sean Beckers

As it starts warming up, more and more of my favourite species start to fire up and one in particular is most welcome, the mighty grunter (javelin fish). These pocket rockets pull hard and put up an awesome fight, especially on light gear, which often results in you dancing around the boat to land them. Along with their reputation for being great fighters, they're also regarded as an awesome table fish which makes them a popular target species for both bait and artificial anglers. There are two species of grunter that are often referred to as the silver and barred javelin fish or spotted and barred grunter. Another name used by many anglers is grunter bream, which can cause some confusion when checking for legal lengths and bag limits. So let's iron out some confusing information and talk through how I like to go about targeting them.

The Differences

Grunter bream is probably the worst reference for not only the fish but also the anglers that may accidently take undersize fish due to confusion about the species. I've heard through the grapevine of a few anglers who have got it wrong when fisheries have stopped by, so let's start here. First let's just drop the reference to bream. When placing a grunter on the measure, a very respectable bream in anyone's language is mid 30's or larger, with the legal size limit being 25cm in my home waters of QLD at the time of writing (always check current regulations as they can change). Grunter on the other hand have different size limits even between the two species and in my home waters of SEQ the spotted has a minimum size limit of 30cm and the barred has a minimum of 40cm. This gives you a really good indication of the sizes that these fish grow to. If you have a good look at a bream side by side to a grunter, there is quite a lot of differences, including body shape, fins and the fact that both species of grunter have spots. Take some time to learn the differences between bream and grunter as there isn't really any excuse for confusing the two and fisheries will likely agree.

Now, to distinguish between the two grunter. If you're not super familiar with these fish, at first glance they can be a little confusing to differentiate between. The most distinguishable feature between the two is the barred grunter, as the name suggests, has bars running vertically down the side of the fish. These become very prominent when the fish is out of the water for a while. The spotted as the name suggests has smaller spots scattered over the entire body. There are other more subtle differences, including body shape, however these are often harder to distinguish at first glance and without the two species side by side to compare.

Both grunter will vary in colour considerably, depending on water conditions. One I caught recently was very silver, whereas I have seen both species with a super yellow belly and sides. Like everything, if you not sure then throw it back or only keep fish that are above the larger of the minimum size limits, being 40cm in my local waters. This is the best way to avoid special attention from the fisheries.

Hot Tip: I keep a couple of photos of the two species on my phone to refer too. It makes it a lot easier to differentiate between the two.

How to Target Grunter:

As I tend to fish artificial presentations, my grunter have been take on either ZMan plastics or Mepps inline spinners. Friends of mine that bait fish tell me they like prawns, yabbies and flesh baits, and that they catch them in both shallow and deep water. Many years ago we would target them on live baits up north QLD, fishing around the rock walls and piers.

On the Plastics:

No secrets here, I love throwing ZMan 2.5" GrubZ and Slim SwimZ on light gear, so it's no surprise that the majority of my grunter are caught on both of these patterns. My go-to colours in Slim SwimZ are Baby Bass, Midnight Oil, Blue Glimmer and Motor Oil, while in the GrubZ Midnight Oil and Bloodworm are favourites for me to throw around. I rig both the GrubZ and Slim SwimZ on either a 1/4oz 1/0 TT Lures DemonZ jighead or a 1/8 or 1/4oz TT Lures HeadlockZ HD in a 1/0 size hook. You can drop back to a HeadlockZ Finesse jighead but keep in mind that these fish do pull hard and there are a lot of other fish that don't mind inhaling a well-presented Slim SwimZ or GrubZ... so be ready to hang on!

On the Mepps:

This is a more left field technique, however when I saw the Mepps inline spinners I thought why wouldn't they work in the saltwater as well as the fresh, where they are extremely popular on trout, redfin, bass and more. Sure enough, I was soon catching flathead, bream, sweetlip, squid and the grunter loved them.

There is a big range of Mepps spinners, however my favourite is the Bug model in Olive colour. The mixture of an anodised green body with a gold blade is pretty irresistible to a lot of fish and the grunter is no exception. I find either a size 1 or 2 does the trick, depending on water depth. Smearing some Pro-Cure scent either under the blade or on the body itself doesn't impact the performance of the spinner and may just convince the grunter to hang on longer.

Retrieve wise I cast right in tight to the edge and allow the Mepps spinner to hit the bottom. Once the Mepps settles I give it a quick rip off the bottom, followed by either a slow roll (slow wind) or a slow roll with an occasional pause. These have proven the most effective techniques.

Combo wise I like either a 1-3kg or 2-4kg Okuma Helios or Cerros rod, matched up with a 30 size Okuma spin reel in either a Jaw, Helios or Epixor XT. Platypus 10lb Braid and 10lb Stealth FC Leader are super effective for feeling the bite. As I hinted at earlier, a smear of Pro-Cure scent is must to convince those fish to strike and hang on while you set the hooks. As far as flavours go, I like to use either Saltwater Yabby / Nipper or Shrimp for grunter, however if you don't have them any other Pro-Cure flavour should still get them biting.

Real Estate:

Grunter are super effective hunters in both the shallow and deep water. They aren't shy about getting up on the flats in search of small baitfish, prawns, crabs and the like, which is good as it means you can target them on all the phases of the tide. Up on the flats look for the areas that hold some structure like weed beds and gravel patches as these areas tend to hold bait and in turn the predators. In saying that though, grunter move about and hunt, so rolling your presentation across seemingly barren areas can also produce the odd grunter or two.

In the deeper water, once again I look for the structure and this may include logs, gravel patches and weed edges. These are all excellent places start fishing for grunter and they will also produce other species. Just like flathead and other species, grunter also like to congregate where the bait is going to be funnelled to them, so keep an eye out for small drains running off into deeper water.

Another thing that has produced fish for me in the past is following the stingray sediment marks. As the stingrays churns up all the sand and mud in search of food, the tide generally then pushes a lot of stirred up sediment around. Not only grunter, other fish will also tend to get into these sediment trails and pick off all the small food that's being flushed away with the tide. A couple of well-presented casts into the stingray trails can often result in some good fish.

If targeting grunter is new to you, like a lot of fishing it can take a bit of time to figure out a pattern. A while back I had never caught a grunter in my local system. Then as I tried different techniques and locations they literally came in as a by-catch species. Nowadays though, depending on the time of year, they become the target species with flathead and bream taking a back seat. Good Luck.

I hope you're getting amongst it.
Screaming dragz, Sean

Gearing Up:
Okuma Helios SX Spin Rods - HSX-S-702L 7' 1-3kg / HSX-S-702ML 7' 2-4kg
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reel - HSX-30
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reel - EPXT-30
Okuma JAW Spin Reel - JAW-30
Platypus P8 Braid - 10lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader - 10lb
ZMan 2.5" GrubZ
ZMan 2.5" Slim SwimZ
TT Lures DemonZ Jigheads
TT Lures HeadlockZ HD Jigheads
Mepps Bug Inline Spinners
Pro-Cure Saltwater Yabby / Nipper Super Gel Scent