How 2 fishermen walked away with first-place prize after hunting for grunt in the Gulf

Key West grunt. Grey snapper. Wayne Gruntzky. White grunt. Rob Gruntkowski. Flannelmouth. Haemulon plumieri. No matter what you call it, it is far from one of the most glamorous species caught in the Gulf.

Nevertheless, the grunt, or whatever you name it, is one of the most oft caught species off Florida’s west coast. They aren’t picky, eating squid, shrimp, crabs, live bait, dead bait, artificial and seemingly everything in between.

When you get on a school, sometimes it is easier to move than fight through them to get more sought-after species. They don’t fight very hard and the pull is slightly stronger than an old boot.

But last weekend was one for the grunts as a field of anglers headed west in search of the heaviest single grunt and biggest combination of three in the 9th Annual Great American Grunt Hunt.

Angler John Zielinski joined the tournament this year for the third time.

“I signed up two years ago for the first time and had a lot of fun. It’s super cheap, $40 a person and it’s all for a great cause getting everyone involved. This year it was also good to get the community of Madeira Beach back together after the hurricanes,” Zielinski said.

The morning of the tournament Zielinski joined his dad on the search for the largest grunt. They declined to enter the largest hogfish Calcutta and focused only on the grey bottom eater. They went to 80 feet of water on a patch of hard bottom, deploying squid on a 2-ounce weight.

“We probably caught 30 between the two of us. We got one up that was noticeably darker, heavier and bigger. It also had a bigger bite. We thought and hoped it would be big enough but didn’t have a scale on the boat,” explained Zielinski.

The pair kept fishing and caught other large grunts. They enjoyed the hunt for the biggest and were hopeful to have a decent finish but not overly concerned if they didn’t.

“We do the event because it’s for a great cause,” Zielinski said. “We didn’t go out and try to win — just thought we may have a chance. We also caught porgies, grouper, triggerfish, lane snapper, just about everything.”

At the scale, Zielinski joined the line to weigh in and saw a close-by angler bragging about the size of their grunt. But in the back of his mind, he thought his was bigger.

Since grunts aren’t the biggest species, the leaderboard was close. Three 1.47-pound fish were weighed, followed by a 1.49, 1.5, 1.53, 1.55, 1.56 and 1.62 from different anglers. Zielinski’s big grunt would test the capacity of the scales when his would weigh in at a massive 1.68 pounds, taking first place.

His three-fish aggregate would win that division as well with 4.53 pounds.

“I can’t wait to do it again in the future,” said Zielinski. “It’s such a fun event.”

For first place in the two divisions, they would win $1,800. The biggest hogfish would go to Mike Layton with a 9.21-pound hog, just edging out Chris Stender’s 9.17-pounder. The grunt youth division was won by Ashley Nielson at 1.62-pounds, who also took second place overall.