The Bonefish Flat: Required Reading: Deneki's Bonefishing 101

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, March 9, 2011

Required Reading: Deneki's Bonefishing 101

A couple of weeks ago our friends at Deneki Outdoors put together a bonefishing 101 guide. I get questions from time to time about how to go about fishing for my favorite fish and this guide is a great starting point.

You can get it here.

I've finally gotten around to reading it and it does a great job laying the foundation for your next bonefish trip. If you've been bonefishing before, this is a great refresher before you go on your next trip. If you've never been on the flats before, this will get you ready with the basics of how to spot fish, casting, and what to expect.

The flats can be a hectic place and one thing I learned from my days playing golf is to have one swing thought. For the flats, it would be one fly thought. Like golf, fly fishing has a lot of different moving parts when you are actually casting. Flats fishing multiplies these things because you've got fish moving quickly, usually a very stiff wind in your face, and a guide behind you urging you on. Trying to keep all the components of a perfect cast in your head can get confusing. This is where keeping one thought in your head, your "fly thought," will help you better present the fly to the fish. Bonefishing 101 gives you several good places to start for a fly thought and it will help you fish better.