Whether you are wading in eighteen inches of water, weaving through the mangroves or doing the Flamingo Slide over a mucky flat, there is no such thing as a seventy-foot cast. For DIY fisherman, it‘s all about the Short Game. Leave your driver, fairway woods and long irons in the bag. DIY success is about accuracy with your wedges and putter. It calls for short precise shots, minimal false casting and one chance to make a pinpoint presentation. There are no Gimmies at thirty feet. I have had the good fortune to fish with some great anglers and casters this year. I’m still awestruck by the elegance of them laying out an eighty-foot line. But I’ve come to realize that the skills required to be successfull from the front of a skiff don’t necessarily translate to being successful in the “hand to hand” combat experienced by the DIY guy. I’m talking about soft presentations at 20 – 40 feet in 25 m.p.h. winds with one false cast. Then dropping the fly not in a Hula Hoop, but on a frisbee. Let me tell you I have seen more than one FFF Certified Casting Instructor brought to tears after his 15th blown shot at under forty feet. It’s the difference between being a great driver of a golf ball and a great putter, both are wonderful skills to posses, but different. Setting the stage for a DIY day; you just got out of your car or off your bicycle. The fish you will be encountering have seen a “Charlie” before, in fact they probably bolted from one yesterday. And the direction you walk has more to do with “where can I go” then the sun, wind and tide. And, 90% of your casts will be forty feet or less. Skills required for the Short Game: Spotting fish: Might as well say it, the number one skill is (drum roll please), spotting a fish before it spots you. There’s no buddy on a raised platform to help, you are now all alone immersed in “Mr. Bones” world. Most wading anglers Personal Spotting Zone is between 30 – 50 feet. This comes as a shock to those who are used to a guided boat experience, but it means that the majority of the fish you see are less than 50 feet away. Casting: The second most important skill is casting. Being able to get the fly close enough to the fish so that it sees the fly without spooking. Chances are he is coming right toward you and dropping the fly on a dinner plate in a 25 m.p.h. cross wind is a whole lot harder than it sounds. You get one shot and the adrenaline is off the charts. This is where it all goes to pot, and even the best long casters get flustered. I mean who practices a side arm thirty-foot cast to a dinner plate in a crossing wind? Welcome to the Short Game, no matter the situation or conditions the fly needs to be placed on the “pointy” end of the fish, quietly with one false cast. Period. Walking: I could write an entire book on this. How fast do you really think you should walk when your Personal Spotting Zone is 40 feet? I’m here to tell you it is about 1/4 the speed you currently think. Walk slow and sliiiiiiiide your feet (the Flamingo Slide). If you can see like a guide, fine you can walk at a guides speed……but really, can you see like a guide? In the Short Game you are not walking leisurely down the fairway but rather stalking a ten foot putt, barely moving and aware of every little deviation and nuance in front of you. Line management: I wish I had talked to “me” twenty years ago when my line management techniques were mirroring what I saw in all the books and magazines. Fifty-feet of line, delicately gliding behind me, resting comfortably on the waters surface, in a perfect loop ready to cast to the happy school of bonefish, clearly visible 70 feet away. Well let me tell you that picture of the beautifully trailing fly line on a expansive white flat happens about as often as Kate Upton knocking on my front door to see if she can use my phone. After tangling my feet in the line 7,000,000 times and trying to cast only to find my line wrapped around a mangrove shoot I decided to forget everything I had read and develop my own line management techniques for the Short Game.The basic concept couldn’t be simpler; outside the tip of the rod is ten feet of leader and ten feet of fly line. Dangling below the reel is a five foot loop (total of ten feet). This setup gives me thirty feet of line ready to go and if the fish is forty feet away I take the three seconds required to strip off another ten feet. Trust me on this one. It’s always faster to strip off line then unwrap it from around your feet. Fly selection: The simplest rule of all for the Short Game is use smaller, lighter, wiggly flies. The water is shallow, the fish are close, and it’s not their first rodeo. This is not the place for your “guide boat” box stuffed with heavily weighted, large profile #0’s, #2’s & #4″s. The DIY box is filled with #4’s, #6’s & #8’s lightly weighted with just a little flash, lots of wiggly parts and a small profile. I now carry fifty-eight flies, including Greg Flats Fly’s, Bonefish Junk Light, Ververka’s Mantis Shrimp, Tailer Beware , Pops Bitter and a small Raghead crab. Add to those a row of unweighted flies for tailers and three with weed guards. I’ve tied flies for forty-eight years, own thousands, tied all the newest and greatest,and travelled with bags full and now am down to fifty-eight flies when I’m fishing. So there you go, DIY bonefishing is all about being a master of the Short Game. Forget about the long ball, concentrate on sticking your […]
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