Now is a great time to talk about casting to schools of fish because as we come into the winter we will have fish in tighter schools and clearer water. This is a great time of year to fish, but there are a few things that I have learned over the years that are important on these schools of reds.
The first thing about these schools is that the fish are usually more aware and therefore you need to be able to cast further than you do when they are singles. The only exception to this would be if the school is working bait and moving then they usually will not be as spooky. But this is rarer as it gets colder. The reason they are more aware is because there are more of them which means more fish scales picking up vibrations in the water and more eyes to see you before you can get a cast to them.
So what I usually tell people is that they should cast to the outside of the school, incoming tide side is best. This way it is far less likely to spook the school and the tide can then swing the fly into the school as you strip. The more tide movement you have the farther you can cast to the side of the school. It is also best to cast a fly that will not make too much noise upon arrival. I like the Dupree or a Puglisi pattern for this reason.
The other day I had a fellow guide on the boat, Thomas, from up in Ashville and we fished the afternoon low tide. It was a day where most of the water we found was very muddy and things were really hard to see. So hard to see that we had a fish follow the fly in a foot of water only to see it, 2 feet from the boat following the fly to the surface as he picked his cast up. The fish disappeared in the 'chocolate milk' water only 2 inches under the surface. We finally found a very nice school, about 80 fish strong, sitting on some light colored bottom. Thomas put a 95 foot cast out to the left of the fish, which was to the west side of them and where the tide was coming from. He was at least 6 feet out from the fish and before the fly even landed every fish got up and moved away from it. Spooked, why?
I didn't think about it at the time until I analyzed the situation. The problem, though most days I don't think it would have been an issue, was in the fact that it was later in the day and that his cast was to the west. Thomas was as good or better than any caster that I have ever had on the boat, so where he put his cast was on me. Though I live by putting it to the outside of the school from 90 feet out I have not really seen it matter. I won't ever make that mistake again. The shadow of that low sun out of the west came right over those fish and even though the fly might have been pulled away from those fish tide wise a cast to the east side would have been better. We did later have the school come back around and 6 fish followed the fly with one of them taking it but that fish didn't get stuck.
So cast to the outside of the school, tide incoming side if that side doesn't throw a shadow. One last addition as always is catch up to fly before it even hits the water so you can strip it as early as possible if this is needed or let it swing in with the tide and then strip.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Top 5 things not to do.
1. Don't rock the boat.
Ever see a dolphin get up in skinny water, well he generally makes a wake while do so. These pressure waves are one way that a redfish know something is coming and if they are a little on edge as soon as they feel the slightest pressure wave they become more worried about safety and less about feeding. I have seen tailing fish stop tailing and I seen a school of 500 reds all pick up and run the other way just because of a few pressure waves. When casting on the front of a flats boat you need to make sure that you are not swaying back and forth, this not only causes pressure waves but is often how the foot brake on your cast gets applied because the sway lifts part of your foot enough to get fly line under it.
2. Don't cast a fly and wait to strip. (unless...)
When fishing many situations here in the low country you will encounter oyster shells and oyster shells don't care if you have a weed guard or not. Most of the time when a fly gets stuck on oysters it is actually wedged not hooked. So if you are doing some blind casting or you are around a school of fish not targeting a specific one then cast and start stripping. This is something that can be practiced and should be. While practicing (for a right hand caster) as your fly lays down bring the line from your left hand into your right hand. Done correctly you should be stripping the fly almost before it hits. The 'unless' parts of this are if you are sight casting to a single fish and you have to wait on that fish to catch up, or you need a lighter fly to sink a little. Even if you are in one of these two situations you should still be in the position to strip, rod down, line between finger on right hand and rod handle, and line in left hand ready to pull. Again this is something that can be practiced.
3. No knocks or bumps.
No matter if you are fishing, taking a picture, poling, getting a drink from the cooler, opening a hatch to get out something, if you are on a flat looking for fish don't make knocks or bumps on the boat. Keep your feet as quiet as possible when you are on the front casting, when line is caught up on something back in the boat don't step hard down into the boat to untangle it. When taking a picture make sure that you know where you are standing and what is around you so when you are focused on the camera you won't make the mistake of bumping something or losing balance for a second and having to take a hard step. Close the cooler and hatches quietly. This all sounds a little picky until you see a school of fish a little ways from you pick up and run away as soon as knock occurs or a bump from a rushed caster steps hard back in the boat to get the fly line off something. I fished with a guide some where (remaining unnamed) not to long ago in one of the best bonefish fisheries in the world and we didn't see very many fish any of the days we fished. I would put money on the fact that part of this was due to the fact that instead of pushing the boat in many situations he would get the wind to push him down a flat sideways and use the pole on the side of the boat to somewhat control it. So we had a fairly constant knocking going on letting those fish know we were coming. How nice of us!
2. Don't fish muddy water
This might be best stated as, fish the clearest water you can find because there are times when most everywhere is muddy. When you can't see a gold fly any more than an inch deep in the water then the fish most likely can't either. Fish also become more spooky in water they can't see well in. It is like being afraid of the dark you can't see what is coming so everything is a more heightened in how you sense the things around you. Muds from fish and muddy water are two different things. There are times when the fish will have their backs out in muddy water making it easier to follow them and if this is the case and you can cast pretty far then use a fly that is quiet on entry like the dupree and get it in front of the fish tring to bring it right across it's nose.
1. Don't stop paying attention but don't get over focused
Things happen fast in the salt. When you are trying to find fish on a flat don't stop looking around. Obviously you can't see everything but if you stop paying attention you most likely won't see anything. What I mean about not getting over focused is if you stop using your peripheral vision by overly focusing straight where you are looking then you are severely limiting your range of what you can see and react to. You react to peripheral vision much faster as a defense mechanism so often that is the best way to see things anyway. A flash from a redfish or a tip of a tail can tell you where a 100 of them are sitting while a shrimp jumping can tell you that one is in a little spot you would have never even thought a fish would go.
Ever see a dolphin get up in skinny water, well he generally makes a wake while do so. These pressure waves are one way that a redfish know something is coming and if they are a little on edge as soon as they feel the slightest pressure wave they become more worried about safety and less about feeding. I have seen tailing fish stop tailing and I seen a school of 500 reds all pick up and run the other way just because of a few pressure waves. When casting on the front of a flats boat you need to make sure that you are not swaying back and forth, this not only causes pressure waves but is often how the foot brake on your cast gets applied because the sway lifts part of your foot enough to get fly line under it.
2. Don't cast a fly and wait to strip. (unless...)
When fishing many situations here in the low country you will encounter oyster shells and oyster shells don't care if you have a weed guard or not. Most of the time when a fly gets stuck on oysters it is actually wedged not hooked. So if you are doing some blind casting or you are around a school of fish not targeting a specific one then cast and start stripping. This is something that can be practiced and should be. While practicing (for a right hand caster) as your fly lays down bring the line from your left hand into your right hand. Done correctly you should be stripping the fly almost before it hits. The 'unless' parts of this are if you are sight casting to a single fish and you have to wait on that fish to catch up, or you need a lighter fly to sink a little. Even if you are in one of these two situations you should still be in the position to strip, rod down, line between finger on right hand and rod handle, and line in left hand ready to pull. Again this is something that can be practiced.
3. No knocks or bumps.
No matter if you are fishing, taking a picture, poling, getting a drink from the cooler, opening a hatch to get out something, if you are on a flat looking for fish don't make knocks or bumps on the boat. Keep your feet as quiet as possible when you are on the front casting, when line is caught up on something back in the boat don't step hard down into the boat to untangle it. When taking a picture make sure that you know where you are standing and what is around you so when you are focused on the camera you won't make the mistake of bumping something or losing balance for a second and having to take a hard step. Close the cooler and hatches quietly. This all sounds a little picky until you see a school of fish a little ways from you pick up and run away as soon as knock occurs or a bump from a rushed caster steps hard back in the boat to get the fly line off something. I fished with a guide some where (remaining unnamed) not to long ago in one of the best bonefish fisheries in the world and we didn't see very many fish any of the days we fished. I would put money on the fact that part of this was due to the fact that instead of pushing the boat in many situations he would get the wind to push him down a flat sideways and use the pole on the side of the boat to somewhat control it. So we had a fairly constant knocking going on letting those fish know we were coming. How nice of us!
2. Don't fish muddy water
This might be best stated as, fish the clearest water you can find because there are times when most everywhere is muddy. When you can't see a gold fly any more than an inch deep in the water then the fish most likely can't either. Fish also become more spooky in water they can't see well in. It is like being afraid of the dark you can't see what is coming so everything is a more heightened in how you sense the things around you. Muds from fish and muddy water are two different things. There are times when the fish will have their backs out in muddy water making it easier to follow them and if this is the case and you can cast pretty far then use a fly that is quiet on entry like the dupree and get it in front of the fish tring to bring it right across it's nose.
1. Don't stop paying attention but don't get over focused
Things happen fast in the salt. When you are trying to find fish on a flat don't stop looking around. Obviously you can't see everything but if you stop paying attention you most likely won't see anything. What I mean about not getting over focused is if you stop using your peripheral vision by overly focusing straight where you are looking then you are severely limiting your range of what you can see and react to. You react to peripheral vision much faster as a defense mechanism so often that is the best way to see things anyway. A flash from a redfish or a tip of a tail can tell you where a 100 of them are sitting while a shrimp jumping can tell you that one is in a little spot you would have never even thought a fish would go.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Catch Up
"They had to of seen that, they must not want to eat...should we change flies?" I don't remember when it happened the first time but I hear it often and more often than that I see the result. I get my caster to see a few pushes coming down the bank he has a few seconds to make the cast before they will see the boat, he leads the school a little with a dupree or a clouser he starts striping as if to move the fly a moment passes I say 'strip, strip' more forcefully he speeds up a little and the fish blow right past it. So what was the issue?
A second but similar story. "These fish aren't really moving around yet with this sun so low, put a cast up on this point just to see if they are sitting there." He did just that, first cast of the day out about 70 feet with a little bit of curl at the end. A fish pushed about two feet to the left of the fly and he lifted the rod as if to set the hook because the fish startled him, after realizing this was not a fish eating but one a little startled he took a moment then started striping to catch up with all the slack he had just created. The other fish in the area passed the fly by and moved up the bank following their buddy. Then came pretty much the same comment in the boat as the other story about being confused on why they wouldn't eat.
Both stories had two key words, 'a moment' which were the likely reason we didn't catch any of the fish on the point or from the school coming to us.
If you are in a situation where you cast and there is a little slack or put it right in front of a fast moving school you better being doing all you can to catch up to the fly. I often have casters cast out to fish and start to strip the correct strip for moving the fly before they have caught up to it. The steady strip of a dupree spoonfly or the bumping strip of a clouser are not so effective as when used as the catching up strip to get the slack in. In other words before you start moving the fly with your strip you need to catch up to the fly and often you need to do so fast. There is no drift here in the Low Country.
Yesterday I had a young teenager on the boat, excited to fish, good with a fly rod, and focused on what he was doing. Youth and excitement helped him catch fish, his excitement didn't want his hands to waste time stripping slow unless he had caught up to his fly. It seemed he was automatically caught up with his fly whenever we were on fish, even if he didn't lay out a perfectly taunt cast. So the 'a moment' phrase didn't play much of a role in his fishing and most importantly this ended up yielding hookups.
Just one more little thing that can make such a huge difference.
A second but similar story. "These fish aren't really moving around yet with this sun so low, put a cast up on this point just to see if they are sitting there." He did just that, first cast of the day out about 70 feet with a little bit of curl at the end. A fish pushed about two feet to the left of the fly and he lifted the rod as if to set the hook because the fish startled him, after realizing this was not a fish eating but one a little startled he took a moment then started striping to catch up with all the slack he had just created. The other fish in the area passed the fly by and moved up the bank following their buddy. Then came pretty much the same comment in the boat as the other story about being confused on why they wouldn't eat.
Both stories had two key words, 'a moment' which were the likely reason we didn't catch any of the fish on the point or from the school coming to us.
If you are in a situation where you cast and there is a little slack or put it right in front of a fast moving school you better being doing all you can to catch up to the fly. I often have casters cast out to fish and start to strip the correct strip for moving the fly before they have caught up to it. The steady strip of a dupree spoonfly or the bumping strip of a clouser are not so effective as when used as the catching up strip to get the slack in. In other words before you start moving the fly with your strip you need to catch up to the fly and often you need to do so fast. There is no drift here in the Low Country.
Yesterday I had a young teenager on the boat, excited to fish, good with a fly rod, and focused on what he was doing. Youth and excitement helped him catch fish, his excitement didn't want his hands to waste time stripping slow unless he had caught up to his fly. It seemed he was automatically caught up with his fly whenever we were on fish, even if he didn't lay out a perfectly taunt cast. So the 'a moment' phrase didn't play much of a role in his fishing and most importantly this ended up yielding hookups.
Just one more little thing that can make such a huge difference.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Preperation Is Key
Recently I have helped prepare quite a few people who are getting ready for trips in the coming months as well as myself for a trip to Belize. So I thought it would be a great time to talk about being prepared for a trip. With all that I see in the outfitter, hear on the telephone, and experience on the water I feel pretty confident that I will supply some good insight toward your travel.
Fly fishing trips, especially those out of the country, are unlike a trip to the in-laws or out of town for a few days with the wife. To have a successful fishing trip there is a great deal of thought and preparation for so many reasons. I think the first of those reasons is because when you are there you want to take full advantage of the situations you are in. Another reason is that these trips are expensive. They are expensive enough that many will pay for trip insurance and yet wait until the last few days to prepare. Often this results in people leaving out enough of something or forgetting it all together. Running out of the flies that have been working, not having a spool of 8lbs test fluorocarbon when fish are extremely spooky, or not having a higher weight rod for windy days are all things that could make or break many of the shots you will have at fish. In other words don't ruin an expensive trip because you don't have the right tools once you get there.
For my upcoming trip I will have one carry on bag that fits six, four piece, rods in their rod socks. Inside this bag I am carrying four rods, 7wt - 10wt, the 7 for Bones on calm days, 8 on not so calm days the 9 mostly as a backup and the 10 as a permit and tarpon rod. I have the corresponding reels for each rod as well, while fishing the 7 or 8 I plan to have the 9 and/or 10 rigged for the right species so they are ready to fire. I also have a change of underwear, t-shirt, hat, leaders and a box of flies incase my checked luggage does not make it I will have the essentials. Finally on an outside pocket I have the TSA webpage on fishing and hunting printed so if I get questioned about flies then I can present their own words in defense. Click for that page.
Preparation that is just as important is to practice before you come. I am not saying you need to be able to put a fly out 80 feet into a coffee cup with a stiff wind on only one back cast but I am saying that no matter how good or poor a fly caster you are practice will always serve you well. I feel it is important to practice in a few different ways according to the time you have before the trip. A few weeks or more out is the time to work on the parts of your cast, your acceleration and stop, the angle of your arm, where your elbow is, not opening or breaking your wrist, tight loops, and so on. As you get closer to time stop practicing the parts and practice fishing. Focus on targets and cast to them from the ready position as if you were on a boat, also walk around and pick targets as if you were wading. Finally continue to practice fishing but do so with minimal false casts. In most resects practicing fishing and practicing fly casting are two different things. Those that do something well in the heat of the moment use the muscle memory they have because if they stop and think about the details they are more likely to falter.
There are going to be quite a few different things that you can't prepare for but all the more reason that if you are going on a trip in the first place you should plan for every feasible thing you can.
Fly fishing trips, especially those out of the country, are unlike a trip to the in-laws or out of town for a few days with the wife. To have a successful fishing trip there is a great deal of thought and preparation for so many reasons. I think the first of those reasons is because when you are there you want to take full advantage of the situations you are in. Another reason is that these trips are expensive. They are expensive enough that many will pay for trip insurance and yet wait until the last few days to prepare. Often this results in people leaving out enough of something or forgetting it all together. Running out of the flies that have been working, not having a spool of 8lbs test fluorocarbon when fish are extremely spooky, or not having a higher weight rod for windy days are all things that could make or break many of the shots you will have at fish. In other words don't ruin an expensive trip because you don't have the right tools once you get there.
For my upcoming trip I will have one carry on bag that fits six, four piece, rods in their rod socks. Inside this bag I am carrying four rods, 7wt - 10wt, the 7 for Bones on calm days, 8 on not so calm days the 9 mostly as a backup and the 10 as a permit and tarpon rod. I have the corresponding reels for each rod as well, while fishing the 7 or 8 I plan to have the 9 and/or 10 rigged for the right species so they are ready to fire. I also have a change of underwear, t-shirt, hat, leaders and a box of flies incase my checked luggage does not make it I will have the essentials. Finally on an outside pocket I have the TSA webpage on fishing and hunting printed so if I get questioned about flies then I can present their own words in defense. Click for that page.
Preparation that is just as important is to practice before you come. I am not saying you need to be able to put a fly out 80 feet into a coffee cup with a stiff wind on only one back cast but I am saying that no matter how good or poor a fly caster you are practice will always serve you well. I feel it is important to practice in a few different ways according to the time you have before the trip. A few weeks or more out is the time to work on the parts of your cast, your acceleration and stop, the angle of your arm, where your elbow is, not opening or breaking your wrist, tight loops, and so on. As you get closer to time stop practicing the parts and practice fishing. Focus on targets and cast to them from the ready position as if you were on a boat, also walk around and pick targets as if you were wading. Finally continue to practice fishing but do so with minimal false casts. In most resects practicing fishing and practicing fly casting are two different things. Those that do something well in the heat of the moment use the muscle memory they have because if they stop and think about the details they are more likely to falter.
There are going to be quite a few different things that you can't prepare for but all the more reason that if you are going on a trip in the first place you should plan for every feasible thing you can.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Not Spooking Fish
Over all the years of my guiding there have been a few constants in the success of catching fish, one of those is that spooking fish is a horrible finish after all the hard work of finding them in the first place. I am sure that I still have things to learn on how not to have this happen but right now I have a pretty good grasp on what to and what not to do on this topic.
Sight is usually the key to staying out of trouble. If you can see fish far enough out then you are ahead of the game, after all not running them over with the boat is always helpful. Sometimes the fish dictate this in a nective way, they sit a little deeper, pick a muddy area to reside in, and/or hardly move. Other times fish will have their backs out of the water with birds over them chasing the shrimp they are kicking up. Most fish are somewhere in the middle, with a momentary flash of white from their underside or water that is just slightly shaky. Being vigilant equals seeing fish and if you see them early you can be prepared.
While you are poling to where they are there are things to do to make sure you don't make the fish aware of your presents. Don't think you need to get there in the next few seconds, pushing the boat extremely fast is more likely to create pressure waves. Keep someone on front so that the bow stays down and doesn't slap, be tender with the pole when you first make contact with the bottom to avoid crunching noises, no one in the boat should be picking up their feet unless they somehow can keep those feet from returning to the boat surface, as the caster don't sway because rocking the boat will make pressure waves, and minimize talking but when you do talk make sure you do so in the direction of the other person so you don't have to talk as loud. As you approach make sure you are 100% ready to cast, you should always be, but if you have this luxury then you have no excuse. When poling the boat you need to make sure the boat is positioned properly, if possible, to put the fish in line with the casters strongest ability as far as his cast.
When you get to the casting range don't cast in the middle or to the other side of the school. The fish on the other side are just as fishy as the fish on your side and if you pull one off your side then most likely the others will not spook as bad as if you lay fly line across the school and or pull a fish through the school. Know your depth so you know the heaviest your fly has to be to get to the bottom, in other words if a light fly will do the job then it will do it better.
Sight is usually the key to staying out of trouble. If you can see fish far enough out then you are ahead of the game, after all not running them over with the boat is always helpful. Sometimes the fish dictate this in a nective way, they sit a little deeper, pick a muddy area to reside in, and/or hardly move. Other times fish will have their backs out of the water with birds over them chasing the shrimp they are kicking up. Most fish are somewhere in the middle, with a momentary flash of white from their underside or water that is just slightly shaky. Being vigilant equals seeing fish and if you see them early you can be prepared.
While you are poling to where they are there are things to do to make sure you don't make the fish aware of your presents. Don't think you need to get there in the next few seconds, pushing the boat extremely fast is more likely to create pressure waves. Keep someone on front so that the bow stays down and doesn't slap, be tender with the pole when you first make contact with the bottom to avoid crunching noises, no one in the boat should be picking up their feet unless they somehow can keep those feet from returning to the boat surface, as the caster don't sway because rocking the boat will make pressure waves, and minimize talking but when you do talk make sure you do so in the direction of the other person so you don't have to talk as loud. As you approach make sure you are 100% ready to cast, you should always be, but if you have this luxury then you have no excuse. When poling the boat you need to make sure the boat is positioned properly, if possible, to put the fish in line with the casters strongest ability as far as his cast.
When you get to the casting range don't cast in the middle or to the other side of the school. The fish on the other side are just as fishy as the fish on your side and if you pull one off your side then most likely the others will not spook as bad as if you lay fly line across the school and or pull a fish through the school. Know your depth so you know the heaviest your fly has to be to get to the bottom, in other words if a light fly will do the job then it will do it better.
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