The Bonefish Flat: Target Practice

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.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Target Practice

I was going to call this post "The Lion and the Tarpon," but that's a little too dramatic for a Monday night. I'm a little over a week away from my next adventure tarpon fishing in the Keys. To prepare for this trip, I've really been working on my casting. I figure, you wouldn't go lion hunting without doing a lot of target practice, and since I'm going big game fishing, there is no point in going down to the Keys, where you need your "A" game, without being ready.

When I practice, I always throw against the tape and I have four cones that I use for target practice (we're sight fishing, so we're hunting). I practice to roughly 40, 50, 60, and 70 feet targets. Last year I didn't get much practice in, but the last few weeks I've really gotten back into it and I've really missed it. Is it just me, or do other people start out casting to the 50 and 60 targets with good intentions of dialing this distance in...only to strip off the entire fly line and try to cast the whole line?

Sorry for the lack of posts. The real world has been slamming but hopefully settled down now, so stay tuned and follow me to Key West.