Initial Back Cast
Assume an athletic stance with your hands together, in front, and low.
Then Make a Rapid Back Cast
Make a quick move of the rod using your knees, hips, and shoulders. Take the rod back to an angle of about the 1-2 o’clock position.
Then Pause
The length of the pause is dependent on the length of line you are using - A longer pause for longer line.
I’ve often said that most fly-casting for trout is like having tea with your grandmother and most fly-casting for bonefish in the ocean is more like going three rounds with Joe Frazier
Then Rapid Forward Cast
Move the rod quickly forward using your knees, hips, and shoulders. Then lower the tip of the rod towards the water.
Stance
Assume an athletic position with hands low and in front
Stripping Position
Always make short strips
Setting the Hook
Always pull straight back on the line and reel simultaneously
Raise the Rod
To get surplus line onto the reel using your thumb and index finger to guide so you can fight the fish
Do’s
Raise the rod to fight the fish and to get the loose line onto the reel by mending it through your index finger and thumb and make sure there is no tangle and the line doesn’t wrap around the butt of the rod
Always set the hook by pulling the rod and line straight back
Keep your back cast high and stop the rod very quickly at the 1-2 o’clock angle
Make the back cast movement very rapid
Don’ts
Don’t flip or flex your wrist, keep it rigid
Don’t raise the rod tip or move it to the side to set the hook
Don’t rush. Take your time to make sure that all of your gear is put together properly. Check very carefully to see the flies tied on securely and that your leader has no frayed places and no damage. Also check the knot where it’s tied to the fly line. Most importantly, pull off at least 60 feet of your line into the bottom of the boat and stretch it with your hands very sternly. The reason for this is to straighten out the coils that the line memorized. Those coils can tangle easily and when that happens when you have a large fish on, you will be a sad puppy.
More to come!
If you or a group of friends is interested in Fly-casting Lessons or a brief seminar on the history of it, please let me know!
I am happy to arrange lessons at our earliest convenience.
Please Call or email:
(404) 840-6945
jwpittard@yahoo.com
Bonefishing is the game of a lifetime.
In my opinion, there are really two different experiences to be had while in pursuit of Bone Fish. The first is using a spinning rod and fishing and deeper water. Usually this would be fishing from a boat. Many times it would mean searching for muddy water, indicating that the school, Bone Fish, was digging" into the bottom looking for shrimps crabs, and Glass Minnows. In this case, the angler would not see the fish, but rather the evidence of their "digging". The guides called this a mud! The normal lures used with a spinning rod, would be a quarter ounce pink or yellow or white jig with a lead head. This style of fishing can be fun but it's likely that most Anglers will becomes bored with it in the short time.
The best of the best of chasing bones, using a fly rod while walking in the water about 12 inches deep, at the last of the falling tide, and then the beginning of the coming tide. This is a time when the hungry Bone Fish are just coming in from the deep looking for food.
That is what they do. They follow the tide.
I'm sure you probably already know that these wonderful fish will always be moving from the deepwater of the ocean, and gradually into the mangroves in the flats as the tide comes full.
In this case, the angler is doing more “hunting" than fishing. You will be Looking for multiple signs of fish, nervous water, a glint of a tail, breaking the water, and also seeing the complete fish as it borrows its way head down, sometimes almost completely out of the water. When these bones are feeding in such a way, in this incredibly shallow water, they are extremely skittish, and even the slightest sound will send them rocketing away. So it is that the hunter must use all his guile and be as quiet as possible, as he carefully and methodically moves his feet to get closer to the “bones".
In these shallow circumstances, the fly rod and subsequent lightweight lures is mandatory for success. Getting the lure in the water with his little noise as possible assures the angler the best chance to hook up" and is this style of hunting/fishing that is so intoxicating and something that never gets old. It is truly the game of a lifetime!
These flats in the Bahamas, that you're likely to be walking on, have a variety of different compositions.
They are but uniform! There are flats that are lily white and exclusively sand, and there are flats that are Rocky with Sharp coral. Still other others are soft and mucky and almost impossible to wade. And then others are filled with turtle grass. That can be very walkable.
In case of the turtle Grass weed guards are almost always recommended.
For the most part, an angler needs to match his lure to the color and the make up of the flats bottom. Basically you want to use the color of the fly, which does some degree matches the bottom, but with some contrast, not a dramatic contrast, that is, I would never use an olive fly on a completely white, Sandy flat, but rather an off-white or tan or perhaps a pink fly. On the turtle grass, I might use that all tan fly.