Ah, bonefishing—fly fishing’s puppy love with the salt!
Bonefishing’s romantic vision is often daydreamed in the minds of anglers. Beautiful, endless, crystal-clear flats. Cloudless skies revealing huge schools of happy, eager fish. We wade into this dreamland and imagine throwing precise, perfectly timed casts to intercept cruising bones. Or we gently present to a tailing bone—close, but without spooking. The fish eats, and immediately it takes off at blistering speed for deep water….
We all know the dream. This dream can be a reality. Time your trip right, luck out with great weather, and the fantasy can unfold right in front of you.
But what if it doesn’t? What happens if the romance isn’t working out? The skies are overcast, the water is discolored, or the flats are just empty. What then? Do you go home, sit in your cabana and wait for better conditions?
No way! I suggest you take a different approach. I suggest going after the bonefish they don’t write about: the bonefish without the romance.
When things just aren’t happening in the skinny water, we must seek alternate bonefish habitat to fulfill our dreams. Deeper water from 3 to 6 feet can offer such a habitat, but it’s often overlooked by anglers. The deeper-water bonefish can be a trip-saver, but the game changes drastically. In order to increase your chance of success, you need to adapt.
When fishing deeper water, some anglers would automatically reach for a sink-tip fly line (and that may be warranted for really deep water), but for depths up to 6 feet I prefer a full-floating line with a compact head section. There are several reasons for this. First, floating lines provide a more attention-grabbing presentation, as the line always lifts the fly off the bottom on the strip and then drops it back down on the pause. Contrast this presentation with that of a sink-tip line, which will drag the fly along the bottom.
I find floating lines spook fewer fish, especially if you happen to cast over them. Deeper water is a bit more forgiving as it puts puts a bit of distance between your fly line and the fish, and there’s less chance of the line or leader physically touching your quarry. I also prefer the more compact head for casting in the windy conditions you’re likely to encounter on any bonefish trip.
The biggest reason I prefer sticking with the floating line in deeper water is that it is provides you with a visual connection to the fly; that is, the floating fly line becomes your strike indicator. By watching your line and its movement, you can determine when a fish bites. Often with this style of fishing you won’t feel the take. It will come as the fly drops during a pause, or just as you begin the next strip. The strike is quick and has a unique feel; it feels almost like weeds or debris on the fly, with the entire setup getting tight. There’s rarely a pull until you set the hook. If the strike comes on the drop as you are between strips, the fly line will straighten and lose its subtle S-curves, especially in the tip, close to the leader. If it comes as you are stripping, the tip of the floating line will sink an inch or so. Strip set on all of these. Sometimes it will be a weed, but often there’s a silver ghost behind the pull.
In deeper water your flies must must be more heavily weighted to increase their sink rate and keep them at a sustained depth. Replace the bead chain used on classic bonefish patterns with tungsten, brass, and nickel dumbbell eyes. The hooks can be stouter on these flies than on their skinny-water versions; the extra weight will help turn the fly over more easily in the wind and will also help sink the fly. As with all bonefish flies, the hooks should be razor sharp.
To ensure these flies get to the bottom, they must be tied on long leaders—10 to 14 feet is the norm. Because the extra depth will help camouflage your presentation, you can easily increase the size of your tippet to 12-pound.
Along with your flies and leaders, your strategy and techniques will change as well. Deeper water calls for a slower, more subtle action of the fly. No fast stripping here—mostly slower strips, 2 to 6 inches, punctuated by pauses. It’s important to keep your fly on the bottom, where the bonefish are feeding. Each strip will lift your fly, and each pause will drop it back.
When fishing deeper water, you’ll cast more methodically than when you are sight fishing. Instead of casting at a moving target, you’ll cast in a pattern to locate the first fish. Cast from right to left, moving often to explore the water. Once you find the fish, it’s better to stay close and move back and forth no more than 20 feet to search for other cruising fish. The real trick is locating them in the first place. Once you find one bonefish, odds are there are more.
In water 3 to 6 feet deep, seeing seeing bonefish is difficult if not impossible. This is where a guide can come in handy. A guide has intimate knowledge of the area and where fish may be holding. Guides know why fish hold in certain areas while being completely absent from others. If you’re more of a DIY angler, and hiring a guide is not your style, you can start by looking for features that you would look for on flats: channels, sand-to-grass transitions, tidal flow areas, and natural structure lines such as beaches and rock outcroppings. Tidal phase is less important when fishing deeper water, but it still has an influence on bonefish behavior. A moving tide is preferable to a slack tide. Shallower areas tend to fish better at higher tides, while areas with troughs, deeper holes, and hiding spots fish better at lower tides.
Once you locate the bonefish’s habitat and change your approach, you are sure to meet with success. Bonefish are a blast to catch no matter how you target them. You may just need to adjust the dream of bonefish on the fly to include those fish that didn’t get the memo regarding your romantic notions.
by Brandon Fawcett
Brandon Fawcett is head guide at Fly Fishing Little Corn Island in Nicaragua (flyfishinglittlecorn.com).
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