It’s not everyday that student becomes tutor, but last year I had the pleasure of treating my brother Harry to some grunter fishing with my buddy Mike and me. Harry was my fly fishing mentor, and whenever we go fishing together, I’m the one who raids his fly-boxes and rips him for tips and advice. Not that I was much of a tutor. It was more a case of me, the salty, giving him, the sweet water man, a fly or two and tippet recommendations. He even opted for his trusty 5wt instead of one of my fast action 7wt. When we tackled up in the parking area at the first morning, I told Mike that it would really make my day if Harry got a grunter on his first outing to catch one. Just one. At this particular point in time we noticed good numbers of mud prawns moving about the water column, so deer-hair prawns was the obvious route.

We couldn’t have been fishing for 10 minutes when Mike came tight to a good fish and a few minutes later Harry was up next, landing his first grunter on fly. Or first grunter ever, for that matter. I could see the thrill and awe in Harry’s face as he held that first fish as it was being photographed, pure awe and stoke…

The whooping, hollering and shouting after the grunt was released, was something to behold. I could see that Mike was a bit blown away, ‘Your brother will scare away all the fish in the bloody river!’ Unfortunately for Mike the ruckus continued, it wasn’t long before Harry had his second grunter pulling the shit out of his little 5wt rod. The afternoon turned into a very satisfying session, with Harry and Mike each landing two and myself one grunter.

On the way back another session was planned and a few days later we were back on the river. What can I say; Harry kicked both our butts, by landing no less than 5 grunter in a short session! At some point I looked at Mike as Harry hooked yet another grunter while hollered with joy like madman. ‘It helps that your brother knows a thing or two when it comes to fly fishing, dude!’

Here are some pics of from some of these grunter sessions. Enjoy.

High fives, brotherman!