DIY Bonefish - Pt 2

Part II - Concentric Circles and Presentation.

In Part one of this blog piece, I discussed some of the challenges of getting to a bonefishing location and touched on how to plan a trip based on tides and time of day.  In part two I will try to break down the act of fishing and some of the challenges that bonefishing the flats solo presents. 

Did you miss DIY Bonefish Part 1? Read it here first. 

A World of Variables

A day on the flats is dictated by tides, sun angle, accessibility, wind, fly selection, fly presentation, stealth, and perseverance. Don’t be too daunted, the good thing is that if you do most things right most any angler can catch a few bonefish.  Although some fish require a perfect presentation at 90’ into the wind most fish can be caught at 40 feet, or even less.  I actually caught one once at a distance of 9’ 6” and I fish a 9’ rod!

When I’m on the flats, my goal is to tilt as many factors in my favor as possible.  Having the sun and wind at my back so I’m not looking into glare is one of the more obvious ways to help myself try to keep moving in a direction where I think the fish are most likely to be or staying where I think they are going.  I break many of these factors down into circles.

Circles

The sun circle at noon is almost 360 degrees.  Because the sun is directly overhead fish can be seen in every direction.  In the morning and late afternoon, the circle of vision is much less than that.  As I discussed in part one of this blog, if your shadow is longer than you are tall, sighting fish gets much more difficult.   The exception to the sun circle is at the very bottom of the tide when fish are most likely to be tailing exposing their location above the waterline both visibly and sometimes very loudly thrashing their tails attempting to root out a food item buried in the bottom sediment.

While on the subject of visibility a very important skill to learn as an angler that sight fishes is learning to look through the water and not on the waters’ surface.  My eyes intuitively look at the surface and not through it.  This is especially true when wind creates a ripple no matter how small. To focus or refocus on the bottom I occasionally look straight down and focus on the seafloor at my feet. I can then look out in front of me and see through the glare of the water’s surface to see the bottom better than when my eyes were drawn to the surface. I call this resetting my eyes. It may seem obvious but looking through the water is much easier from on top of it than looking at it from an angle. This is one of the reasons a guide on a poling platform sees fish further away than an angler on the bow. 

The wind circle is defined by the directions I can cast effectively depending on wind intensity and direction.  The best wind direction is either at your back or blowing the line off of your body.  The worst is that quartering cast into the wind with just enough blowing into your body.  I’ve been hit in the face, hat, backpack, and many other places by flies through the years.  The worst was a Clouser minnow hitting me squarely in the back at what felt like a hundred miles and hour.  The lack of wind on many mornings is a great reason to get an early start.  The stealth needed to approach and cast to bonefish on a very calm morning is worth the challenge.  Once the sun is at a proper height to see and before the wind wrinkles the water the sight fishing is what we all dream of.  The downside is that the fish are typically much more unforgiving to a loud presentation and the slosh of faster wading.  Go slowly and stealthily on these mornings.  I also try to tie with materials that minimize the splash of a fly on calm mornings and in very shallow flats. Very small eyes and materials like marabou aid in limiting a loud splash of a fly.   The rewards of seeing the fish swim, feed, interact with one another, and maybe even eat your fly make this my favorite part of the day.  As the wind increases due to the Seabreeze effect during the day the amount of the circle most anglers can cast a fly to effectively decreases. 

The last circle is your casting circle.  Every article I have read on saltwater fly fishing and a topic that comes up with guides I know is casting.  All things being equal, a longer cast covers more area and allows the angler to stay further away from the fish minimizing the chances of spooking them. In terms of area alone a forty-foot cast covers a full third more water than a thirty-foot cast.  A fifty-foot cast covers twenty five percent more water.  If you can cast sixty feet consistently you should be able to cast forty to fifty feet with great accuracy and stealth which is paramount in presenting to bonefish. Splatting a fly down loudly on your longest cast will almost always result in a bonefish fleeing.  So, work on your casting and be aware of not just how long you can cast, but how long you can cast with accuracy and stealth.

Make the First Cast Count

While on the topic of casting, we should focus on the ‘first cast’.  When a fish is searching but not particularly near your fly, the inclination is to recast.  For some reason the recast spooks many bonefish much more than the first cast.  Maybe it’s because you’re closer to the fish and they see you. Maybe they are on alert near a food item that another predator could be near and potentially be harmed.  We don’t know what fish think, only how they react.  I have found that leaving the fly alone in the end will catch more fish.  If they are looking for the fly, they will find it.  A one-inch twitch can clue them in to where the perceived prey item is located.   It may take what seems an eternity, but I have found that I get more fish to commit to eating the fly when I do not recast. This method of course is invalid if the fish swims a distance away from the fly.  Many times, I refer to the subsequent recast as a haymaker.  The fish is unlikely to bite but by this point it’s likely swimming away from you and it’s your last chance to get that fish to eat.  Chasing a bonefish swimming away from you is almost never rewarded. 

Creek Fishing

In addition to sea breezes, there are times when it will just be windy all day.  In these cases, as anglers, we need to tilt the odds in our favor.  Ocean flats are preferable to many anglers but on a windy day the creek systems offer some protection from the wind.   Windy days can whip foam onto the waters’ surface and even suspend sediment into the water column making sighing fish all but impossible on ocean flats.  Creek systems have a predictable pattern where fish travel up channels on the incoming tide, disperse onto the flatter portions as the tide rises, and disappear into the mangroves at high tides.  This all happens in reverse on the outgoing.   As a digression, the footing in creeks is typically more difficult than on ocean flats.  Just remember, if it was a slog getting into the creek it will be equally as difficult getting out.  Deep sticky mud dominates areas of creeks that don’t get flushed by wind and tides unlike the ocean flats which are exposed to many more physical phenomena that remove the fine sediments that make deep mud.   Be aware of your own physical conditioning when venturing into these places.

Creeks come with their own challenges.  Many creeks have mangroves throughout their course that bonefish will head for once hooked.  There is also current in creeks that can get quite heavy during the maximum velocity of the rise and fall of tides.  High current requires differently weighted flies and thought about casting direction not unlike the challenges that the wind and sun present.  In most situations I think a fly should sink to the bottom in three seconds.  During that sink is when you want the bones to see the fly.  I think that this is why so many flies have bright colored heads.  Colors like red, orange, and pink stand out in a drab environment.  When a fly takes three seconds to sink it allows the bones ample time to make first contact.  Once the fly settles to the bottom the bone should already be close by and looking for it.  You will notice its head down and moving side to side while swimming and searching.  Once the bone stops and sometimes visibly rocks from side to side is the time for the long strip that sets the hook. 

In heavy currents, a heavier fly most often is required.  In light to no current, very little weight is required.  Other challenges of fishing in current include figuring out how to fish a fly up current, down current, and to the side. When fishing with a current coming at you, the fly must be fished a little faster to keep in contact with it and many times keep it from hanging in any seaweed, coral, or other obstacles.  A fly swept away or swung in the current rarely gets eaten either.  Fishing down current with enough weight is typically the easiest.  You can keep the fly at or near the bottom and control the speed of movement.  All other things being equal, most fish typically swim into the current making a down current presentation most likely to be at the head end of the fish as opposed to the tail. Regardless of any factors dealing with current or any other factor for that matter, there is no substitute for a good cast. 

Fish move on the tide.  So do the predators that try to eat them.   I always think I’m close to bonefish when I see sharks and barracudas. These fish are usually easier to see and should alert you to pay attention to where they are going and what they are doing.  A downside of these is that they have the bonefish on edge before you get to them.  A bonefish on edge is difficult to get to eat a fly.  On rising tides many hiding places are out of reach of the bonefish.  They want to get up tide and into the mangroves when the tide finally rises to that point.  The mangroves provide cover and safety from predators.  These pathways to the mangroves provide an ambush point for the angler or as they used to say in old westerns, “We’ll cut ‘em off at the pass.”  At the bottom of the tide fish congregate at creek mouths where they meet the ocean. 

Do Some Prep

The next and possibly most important topic I’m going to cover is preparing yourself for success.  Lefty Kreh wrote the book ‘Presenting The Fly’, Lyons Press, 1999.  In the introduction he writes, “Presentation is much more than dropping your fly in the right position in relation to the fish.  It involves the clothes you wear, the way you rig your tackle, how and where you approach the fish, the types of fly lines, and reels you use, the direction of the light, the type of cover, your retrieve method- and so on, and so on.” The first part of that statement resonated with me when I read it many years ago.  When DIY bone fishing, you need to be self-reliant to many challenges.  You are in a water environment with difficult footing. The sun will try and end your trip if not respected.  The fish are hard to see without proper eyewear.  Even on a hot day a rainstorm can leave you cold for the remainder of the day.   I make sure that all my immediate needs are on my person able to be reached at any moment.  This includes water, sunscreen, appropriate footwear, tippet, a fly box, a hemocut (combination forceps and scissors), solid polarized sunglasses, and a sun protecting hat.  I also carry a backpack that holds my lunch a backup fly line, leader, fly box, tippet, wipes, and a raincoat.  All these items lend themselves to success.  I can make enough mistakes on my own.

In closing, do your homework, practice your casting, learn from your successes and failures, but most of all- have fun.  As an angler, bonefish can provide years of learning and increase your love of the sport.

About the Author: Ross Kessler has worked as a marine biologist for over 25 years and been a fly angler for over 35 years.  Ross has worked in and around the fishing industry for 20 years.  When not plying the flats of the tropics Ross spends his time fishing for striped bass, bluefish, bonito, and false albacore around his home in coastal Massachusetts.