I developed the concept of the Personal Bonefish Spotting Zone in the hopes of making it simpler to explain to “newbies” how to see bonefish. Everyone has a Personal Bonefish Spotting Zone, defined as the distance from where you are standing to where you can identify a fish. In a moment I will tell you why knowing the dimensions of your Bonefish Spotting Zone is important. (As usual I am only referring to a wading angler). The zone size is different for each individual and depending on conditions, you will be surprised how small it actually is. I guarantee that most fishermen other than the most experienced flats angler over-estimate how far away they can see fish. Let me pass on a personal experience. After my first five years on the flats, fishing exclusively with guides, I had come to the conclusion I was seeing fish really well. Not as well as the guide, but pretty close. I was ready to go out on my own. My first DIY adventure, I saw squat. My bonefishing IQ went from 110 with a guide to 30 without a guide. My ability to spot fish on my own was nowhere near as refined as I thought it was. There was a lot to learn and the painful truth was I really couldn’t identify a fish that was eighty feet away unless someone pointed it out first. The reality of our vision vs the professional. When standing on the front of a boat your spotting zone may be 60 – 70 feet. Your guide’s is 80 – 100 feet. The difference is a combination of both his superior spotting ability and the additional height provided by the poling platform. When wading, your zone may be 40- 60 feet and your guides is eighty. The difference being his ability to see fish vs yours. The problem this “partnership” (fishing with someone who can see better than you) causes is you begin to believe “you” are actually identifying fish at eighty feet. The reality is the guide identifies the fish, he points it out to you and now you see the fish. There is a big difference between “identifying” a fish on your own and “seeing” a fish once someone shows it to you. We all learned early on to watch a fish as it swims away and then are surprised when we can still see it 100 feet away. Why can’t we spot fish 100 feet away when obviously our eyes are good enough to see them? Now, that you are out on your own, there is no need to impress anyone. You need to be honest and figure out how far away from where you are standing you can identify a fish. If you are new to the sport or only get on the flats a couple of weeks per year, my guess is it is between 30 – 50 feet. The distance is less if it’s murky, cloudy or there is a mottled bottom, more if it’s a nice white flat. Remember that your brain works better when focused on one activity. Your spotting zone when standing still may be 60 feet, but once you start moving and your brain can’t focus on one task, it shrinks to 50 feet. You see better when standing still. The reason it’s important to understand the size of your zone is to insure you spend a majority of the time scanning through the water within the distance where you can identify fish. Then committing to spotting every fish within that zone. If you can’t see fish eighty feet away, limit the time spent looking out that far. My formula for scanning: spend 70% of the time scanning within the Personal Spotting Zone (in that area where the sun/wind makes visibility the best) and 30% of the time divided between the sides, behind and on the surface for tails, pushed water and disturbances. In the end the goal is to stop spooking fish, because you spend too much time scanning where you can’t see and start identifying every fish that is within your Personal Spotting Zone. Next up is the correlation between “Walking Speed and Spotting Fish.”
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