Provided courtesy of Mark Castlow, Dragonfly Boats, Vero Beach, Florida.
By Skip Clement
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ost so-called casting gurus are only schooled graduates of trout and bass experience and have for decades been ignoring what saltwater fly fishers know about fly casting from the deck of a skiff… and more.
It is not a bad thing to be trout-centric because it would be rare to encounter to need to quick cast like a bonefisher always must. But take your game this winter to the Bahamas, Belize, Mexico, Pacific Islands, Seychelles, and beyond, and you must know how to cast quick.
What is the value of quick casting in the salt?
Saltwater fish do not hold in a favorite structure like trouts and basses. Bonefish, for example, we’ve recently learned from the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust research do have a home-court within the bounds of a particular coordinate spanning a limited distance in miles, but migrate long distances beyond their region to spawn. However, they are never stationary. So, an angler must cast quickly or lose his or her window of opportunity.
There’s much more to casting quickly, which is dependent on where you are in the salt – on foot in the flats up to your waist, for example — more on that in another episode.
