Practical Accuracy

I will admit here that my competition accuracy is pretty average.  [I did once hold the BFCC record shortly after they settled on the World Championship targets and rules.  This was subsequently tied by Paul until Kei Okamoto and TC took turns in moving the record on to where it is now.  I’m sure in the coming year Kei will be looking to get the record back, and I shall get out and do some practice in order to see if I can compete with him].  As such, when I’m flats fishing I’m not just thinking about where I want to place the fly – I’m also thinking about where it’s ok to miss and where I absolutely don’t want to go with my fly.

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that flats species, from the smallest bonefish to the largest sharks, are not used to getting ‘attacked’ by their prey.  Consequentially, the cardinal sin is to put the fly in a position where it is retrieved towards the target – this is totally unnatural and almost always results in a spook.  [One memorable exception was a bonefish that was sat in a flow of water that was being channelled into a bay by a rising tide.  Tracy noted this stationary fish and cast her fly into the flow and watched it trundle down to the fish which took it instantly.  Tracy always talks about this as the bonefish she ‘nymphed’ and the fact it’s so memorable probably tells you how rare an occurrence it was].

Anyway, there are a number of ‘standard’ flats shots that require different degrees of accuracy.  The first one is the fish that’s coming right at you, this is perhaps the easiest shot you’ll get.  That said, such fish are more often than not travelling directly downwind so this cast will require a presentation into whatever wind is blowing, and often it’s blowing hard!  Assuming your fly casting is good enough to extend straight into this wind, then the target area is quite large.  Obviously you can go long and hit the fish on (or near) the head and spook it, or you can go too short and end up drawing the fly, and the fish, into the zone where it gets nervous about the angler’s presence.  But apart from that,you’re pretty much good, as even deviations to the left or right will still see the fly being drawn away in an enticing ‘fleeing prey’ type manner (assuming the retrieve is started on time).  As such, I’d say the target area for this cast would be equivalent to scoring a ‘one’ (i.e. hitting within the 1.8m ring) in an accuracy competition.

The next fish is one which is travelling left-to-right or vice-versa.  Here the difficulty of the shot varies with your confidence.  The perfect shot is equivalent to a ‘five’ score in a comp and sees the fly land at the perfect distance in front of the fish and either in-line or marginally on the angler’s side of its direction of travel (too far being a no-no). At this point I should mention that the perfect lead distance depends on knowing your fish, mainly based on previous experiences on the same flat or general location.  Some of the most heavily pressured bonefish I’ve gone after simply will not tolerate any fly (no matter how light) landing within 15ft of them.  Other, less wary fish, are happy with a fly placed two feet from their noses.  Executed perfectly this ‘five’ shot (inside a 0.6m ring) will almost certainly meet with a positive reaction from the fish.  But what, if like me, you’re not a routine ‘five’ score kind of caster?  Well I like to make things easier for myself and aim for a bigger lead than is really necessary.  This turns it from a ‘five’ type of shot into a cast that would normally score a three in an accuracy event (1.2m ring).  It also makes missing much less critical.  For example, miss on the fish side and you end up in the ‘five’ zone so all is good.  Miss on the other side and you’re still good unless the fish changes direction.  However the big difference to the ‘three’ zone to the perfect ‘five’ is that you can miss long and still not spook the fish.  If I miss long, but with a sufficient lead, I reposition the fly by using a figure of-eight retrieve, in my experience this does not spook a fish like a strip would.  In fact I’ve had a lot of success with this type of retrieve i.e. a figure-of-eight reposition followed by a normal strip.  I think it sort of (maybe) replicates the normal movement of a prey item followed by the panic when a predator comes into view.

The final shot is at a fish that is going away from me.  Now, I will say that if I’m fishing with someone and the fish are heading roughly in their direction, then I will never take this shot.  This is because the odds of success are very low and the chance of spooking the fish is very high.  Tracy and I call this ‘spanking the fish on the tail’ and if you’ve ever been on a flat where all you’re seeing is running fish caused by another angler, you’ll know how frustrating it can be.  However, if alone I will occasionally make this shot.  This is most definitely a ‘five’ and it’s usually a long distance one at that.  You need to pass the fish with the fly, but not ‘line’ it.  Therefore this is perhaps the only time I’ll use a curve cast in a flats environment (curved fly lines and strip striking are not the best of friends).  However, the curve is also required to make sure the strip takes the fly away from the direction of travel, rather than straight back into the fish.

I really hope Tracy and myself will be able to get out flats fishing this year.  In the meantime I’ll be imagining bonefish on the grass on my normal casting field and making quick shots to them.

Have a great week, James.