I don’t mean this literally, but “The Dry Fly Presentation For Bonefish” is how I describe a particular presentation I make to “picky” tailing bonefish in shallow water. As you all know, I love to target tailing bonefish in shallow water at either first light or in the evening when the sun is going down. When you are on a DIY trip the time table is yours. I’ll often get up early and be on the water at first light, fish for a couple of hours and then back home for breakfast. On the flip side of the day, I fish those last two hours as the sun sets and have dinner once it is dark. The traditional wisdom is to fish when the sun is high and the rays penetrate the waters surface. I can assure you, that tails, fins, dimples and nervous water are clearly visible as the sun is coming up. Most fisherman I talk to have never fished at sunrise or sunset for bonefish, I think that has more to do with the hours guides and lodges operate than the reality of being able to catch fish during those times. However when you are fishing pressured waters, tailing fish can be really difficult to catch. Combine the fact they have seen most flies, are nervous being in shallow water, focused on digging out “critters”, their cone of vision is extremely small,don’t have a travel pattern and doing it all in twelve inches of water, it’s no wonder that hooking up is not that easy. In fact it has become a bit of an art. Through a whole lot of trial an error I have come up with what I whimsically call “The Dry Fly Presentation to Bonefish.” In a nutshell, it is casting the longest leader you can with the lightest tippet possible, ending with a very small non-weighted fly……..and dropping it right on their head. It reminds me of presenting a small dry fly right to a feeding trout. A long fine leader, a delicate presentation, tipped with a small fly placed exactly where they will see it. The long leader and light tippet (I have gone right down to six pounds) are self explanatory. The small light fly (size #8) is so you don’t spook the fish and it must be made of materials that land softly. There is no “plop” and it lands in their very restricted “cone of vision.” In the past one of the problems I faced with nervous tailing fish is using bead chain flies that make noise entering the water. For years the conventional method was to cast away from the fish and hope they went in the direction you had cast. But they are tailing, they don’t have a travel direction. Time and time again I would pick up and cast again because they just didn’t go where you believed they were heading. This method gets away from that. Adjust your leader, fly size, its weight/materials and drop it right on top of their head.
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