Taking the Shot

When I have a guest fishing with me, the first thing I do is check to see that they can actually make the required cast in the first place. I do this by floating some shoes around the boat and asking them to hit them using the Snakehead Shot. This tells me a great deal, because if the shot (not shit) isn’t right on the money, without the pressure of throwing at a large fish, then we have work to do. And really that work should have been done long before the guest arrives. I use Zoom video conferencing for this nowadays.  Otherwise the first trip is a casting lesson and not a fishing trip.

The slipped lift, one backcast and delivery shot, with all the components in place, is not something you can master in an afternoon. Preferably MONTHS should have been taken to really dial this cast in. If not, then the first thing that happens is that the angler doesn’t slip line on his lift and then it’s no-fishy.  After all, for the fish to eat the fly, it has to see it!

But assuming that the technique is dialled in, then the issue becomes being able to perform the cast under pressure. And it is a nerve racking experience. Here we have a fish, that we have spent time looking for, and while positioning and waiting for the shot to appear, we need to be totally focused and ready to launch the cast at a moment’s notice. There are a whole bunch or additional concerns; money has been spent, flights taken, Paul is bloody watching me, and I only have one attempt to get this right!

It is incredibly difficult. And yet, damned easy!! It’s not technically a hard shot. Of course it can be, but usually, with correct boat positioning, it can be a close-range shot, sometimes with very little shooting of line required. Incidentally, practise your close-range shots and not just middle distance. Mostly we can, and often must, get tight on the fish. Many anglers struggle to hit targets within the first 20’ from feet to fly. That’s training.

Sometimes the fly lands behind the fish. The reason for this is that the angler threw to where this fish was and not in front to where it was swimming. Fish blows up. They don’t like this and almost always spook completely. The fly went where the angler was looking, it’s just he/she was looking in the wrong place.

There are a bunch of other things that can happen, technical issues with the cast such as forgetting to slip line, missing the backcast target completely, not waiting for the backcast to straighten, or indeed just making the worst possible cast imaginable. Which is exactly what you don’t want to do with a large Snakehead – or any fish for that matter. Perhaps the iPhone was onto something here.

So the question is how to bridge the gap between training the shot and actually making the shot? For me I block out everything else in my mind and move it to the background. I have an awareness of line management, I have an awareness of boat positioning, I have an awareness of any stumps around me, but this is all moved away to the background somewhere. There is one true point of focus when the fish appears and that is the target where we want to place the fly. I focus all of my attention to this target and nothing else. Drawing back from it to ring my imaginary backcast bell, and then deliver to the target that I am intensely watching. That is all that truly matters; putting the fly on target. I don’t care if the fish eats, and so long as I put the fly on target, then I’ve done my bit to the best of my ability. About 90% do eat incidentally. 10% don’t – hat’s off to those that don’t! By comparison 0% of fish eat a fly that they don’t see. So this game is wholly about making the shot happen.

It can be very difficult to keep a cool head and it’s definitely something that becomes easier over time. Wanting the fish too badly is a sure way to make life difficult. All that goes through my head is “I Must Make The Shot.” It’s undoubtedly a mental game, one that you can and should play in training too. The only thing I find more intense than taking Snakehead shots, is taking Gourami shots. Thats a more technically demanding shot for sure and a more difficult fish.

If I see a great shot going in then I’m happy, irrespective of outcome. The only bit that we can actually control is this part. It is undoubtedly some of the most exciting fishing on the planet and for me, and many others I’m sure, taking shots at sighted fish is the pinnacle of fly fishing. If you can get good at this, then it opens up a whole fascinating world within a world.

OK let’s go and find a Gourami! :D

Cheers,  Paul