Paul Arden | Monday, 23 March 2026
There has been some really excellent thought-provoking FPs from David on fish spotting, as well as on peripheral vision in flycasting. It’s something that has come up more often for me this year, as returning anglers choose to spend some time fishing alone in my second fishing boat. And I’ve struggled to know how to explain what I do and have had to be more conscious about it in order to explain it.
There are many more challenges when you fish alone here, such as reading the fish and positioning the boat, while being ready to take the shot. Which is all incredibly difficult and takes a lot of practise. But over the years since I’ve had the two boats, I’ve noticed that most anglers fishing solo, at least at first, find about 1/3rd the shots that I find, and this is despite me always giving them the better territory. In other words, where I would go myself I send them and I take the other bank instead, knowing full well I’ll most probably find less fish there.
Now it is not surprising that they find less fish. I fished New Zealand for 20 summers. And as I tell a lot of people, it took many years to really learn to spot there, but even once I had learned to spot in NZ, it would still take 2-3 weeks until my eyes had truly dialled back in again at the start of every spring.
Furthermore, spotting fish in NZ rivers is not the same as spotting fish elsewhere. Of course I can see bonefish and redfish, I can see grayling on chalksteams, but when compared to someone who does this day-in day-out, 300+ days a year, for a decade or more, I am not even close.
The first consideration is to know where to look. In NZ rivers that means reading the river; broken water 3-4’ deep, convergence of currents, the inside eye of the pool and so on. Fish take the prime spots and if there is no one home then there is most probably a better spot further upstream. They do roam too, so that’s another possibility. On SW flats my experience is limited, but I have recognised the importance of small currents acting as conveyor belts. Indeed looking for currents in the salt and stillwaters has transformed my fishing understanding over the years.
Here on the jungle lake, with babies, it means searching the lake edges and stumps. Bays within bays. There are times when you can look over deep water in the middle of the lake, mostly for bigger babies. There are areas that regularly produce and others that regularly don’t. Which means trial and error and a process of elimination over time. And of course being out and about, when the fish are out and about, is also an essential requirement.
I was given some very good advice when fishing with Bruce in Tasmania (that will narrow it down). He told me that in the territorial army they are taught to scan right to left instead of left to right, because that way the brain takes more notice (usually, when reading for example we scan left to right and skip over words). I’ve been scanning in this reverse direction ever since.
Here, when looking for snakehead babies, it’s rare to see the entire set the first time. They rise every minute, sometimes every couple of minutes. So you need to be scanning each part of water continuously for at least for a couple of minutes, while on the move. This doesn’t mean scanning once along the bank but many times. Refreshing, refreshing, refreshing.
What happens is that something deep in the subconscious says “hang on!” Maybe it was the tail end of the babies rise, or the disturbance left after. It’s not just any disturbance. Because there’s a lot of that, with baitfish and free-risers. Instead it’s a specific disturbance that the brain registers and selects as being possibly created by a set of babies and worth checking.
At this point in time I may not have been looking consciously. My mind could have been somewhere else completely. Maybe it’s thinking about a flycasting puzzle, or remembering some event in the past, or just away with the fairies. There is not much I can do about that. But now the subconscious has brought something to the surface that needs my attention.
Of course I’ve been doing this particular type of hunting for over ten years. But it’s an example of looking without looking. Seeing without seeing. David’s suggestion of “scanning” was quite right. It’s not about trying to see a fish. It’s about seeing without looking too hard and allowing the subconscious to alert you, while having the confidence that you WILL see them. And that is not easy. But I’m 100% sure it’s where you want to be. The problem is of course, that it takes time.
In the case of babies one thing that could help speed things up, is to really study how the surface activity appears towards the end of the rise as well as after. More often than not, this is what your brain registers when you are scanning. So let it know that’s what you are looking for and not the much more obvious complete set rising. The eyes and the brain are amazing and often the best thing to do is to simply let them get on with it.
Over in Texas, Andy is getting on with it too, and will be building the first Sexyloops Tornados later today. Over here I’m getting on with it as well, and I’m finalising the new Sexyloops website layouts this week. That was a fast job and has taken just a little over two years. That’s in thanks to Rickard, because otherwise it would have taken ten years or probably more.
Selamat Hari Raya to all my Malay friends. I had two casting lessons this morning, a Malay class this afternoon, followed by another casting class this evening. Then I shall go and catch some fish!! I’m busy coaching at the moment, with many of my students emerging out of hibernation. It’s back to the summertime 6am starts for me! And that just thrills me :D
Have a great day!
Cheers, Paul