Welcome to The Bonefish Flat

There's a stiff wind in your face as you squint in the sun trying to see what the guide sees. "Bonefish at 12 o'clock about 90 feet, do you see it, mon?" You don't and keep squinting, your hat pulled low to keep the sun out of your eyes. "Bonefish at 11 o'clock 70 feet out. Come on man, do you see it?" As the guide is calmly shifting the skiff into position, this time you spot the fish, "I got, it," you reply.

"OK, Mon, Bonefish 50 feet at 10 o'clock. Cast when you're ready."

Cast when you're ready. And with that you drop your fly, roll out a cast, false cast once, and then...

Welcome to the bonefish flat.



Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Flats Cast

On a message board I frequent, i saw the question posed what does salt water bring to fly fishing. Well, the bonefish flat is getting ready to head to a famous trout stream in two weeks so i've had some time to contemplate this.

The trout cast is one where you start with the basic mechanics of the fly cast and then essentially mess it up. Casting a dry fly involves numerous slack line casts in an effort to have a drag free drift. In addition to the cast, you're also feverishly trying to match the hatch as best as possible and the bugs involved are a lot more complicated than in the salt.

On the flip side, in salt your casting into the wind (always into the wind) and casting a heavier rod with a heavier fly. If you're sight fishing, you're looking for something that's hard to see and is moving fast as hell. Slack line in the salt, unlike trout fishing, is the enemy and slack line casts will cost you a fish of a lifetime.

More to come on these differences as i think they are really worth exploring.
Posted by at 9:52 PM
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1 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Great site and love the enthusiasm. Love also your description of a trout cast. Hilarious... and pretty accurate (though I've seen some trout anglers make some sweet, sweet casts).

    I've actually written an article for my site about this if you're interested (www.fish-bones.com/article_salty-casting.html).

    For me the biggest difference, other than slack line, is trying to make both a strong and delicate cast at the same time. Tough proposition. But, my solution is this: shoot lots of line on that last cast - the presentation cast. That keeps the fly from flipping over too hard at the end of the cast and making a fish-spooking splash.

    My 2cents, and keep up the good blog.

    Tight lines.
    ReplyDelete

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