Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Belize earns the trip because bonefish, tarpon and permit share the same flats, making a grand slam realistic rather than theoretical. The trade-off is difficulty: flats fishing exposes every casting flaw immediately, and most visiting anglers fish only six to twelve days a year, so you are often just finding your rhythm as the week ends.
James Johnson owns and runs Katmai Trophy Lodge in Alaska and previously ran a fly fishing lodge in Belize, where he guided anglers for bonefish, tarpon and permit.
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What does nervous water look like on a bonefish flat?
Nervous water shows up in two forms. The first is a push or V wake thrown by a fish swimming high in the water column, which anglers commonly misread by casting at the wake itself instead of ahead of it; on a large permit the wake trails roughly two feet behind the fish's head. The second is a shudder, a patch of surface water moving in a different direction from the wind chop or tide, which usually means fish are cruising or feeding in that zone.
How far in front of a permit should you cast?
Roughly three feet is the standard lead on a permit, but the number moves with conditions. On glassy calm water the fly may need to land six to twelve feet ahead so it does not spook the fish, while a foot of chop lets you put a lead-eye fly three feet away. A light bead-chain fly needs a longer lead than a heavy one because it sinks into the fish's cone of vision more slowly, and a stopped or tailing fish gets the fly placed almost on its head.
Do permit, bonefish and tarpon need different leads?
Permit are the most erratic of the three species, changing direction constantly, so they get the closest cast because there is no reliable way to predict where they will be a second later. Tarpon swim the straightest and get the longest lead, often six to eight feet, cast across and in front of a moving chain of fish. Bonefish fall in the middle. The priority in all three cases is the same: make the fish physically react to the fly, whether it eats, follows or moves away.
How do you strip a shrimp, crab or baitfish fly on the flats?
A shrimp pattern is fished as a fleeing animal: pulse it faster when the fish charges, and slow it or drop it to the bottom when the fish follows timidly. Crabs generally move slower for larger fish, and Johnson recommends dropping any unfamiliar crab pattern beside the boat first to see whether it spins at speed, which would make it unfishable. Baitfish patterns are stripped fast when tarpon are busting bait; in all cases the fly should move away from a predator, never toward it.
How do you fight a tarpon without losing it?
Tarpon are fought with the rod tip low, pulling against whichever direction the fish is facing to turn its head, and most anglers pull far less hard than they should. Fish under about forty pounds are often best fought on the strip rather than sacrificing tension to get them onto the reel. A fifteen-pound tarpon on an eight weight can be landed in around three minutes, and keeping a tired fish from rolling and gulping air prevents it getting a second wind.
How should you clear your fly line after hooking a flats fish?
After the strip set, raise the rod and spread your hands so loose line runs through your line hand and out the guides, which stops it wrapping the reel handle or rod butt. While the fish runs, look down and check you are not standing on the line and that it is not caught on a gear bag. Fishing barefoot or in thin socks makes standing on the line far less likely, and moving shoes and loose gear to the back of the boat removes the rest of the snag points.
What should you practise before a saltwater fly fishing trip?
Two skills matter most. The first is an accurate backhanded cast, made by opening your stance and releasing on the back cast rather than the forward cast, which Johnson estimates adds thirty to forty percent more shots on a saltwater trip because you can handle wind on your rod shoulder. The second is the double haul. Speed also counts: getting sixty feet out in one or two false casts is the target, and five means it needs work.
Key takeaways
- The V wake you see comes off the back of a fish, roughly two feet behind a big permit's head, so casting at the wake usually puts the fly behind the fish.
- Standard permit lead is about three feet, but stretch it to six or more on glassy water and shorten it for a stopped or tailing fish.
- The goal of every cast is to make the fish react to the fly; repeated casts that never show it the fly only make the fish warier.
- Drop an unfamiliar crab pattern in beside the boat and move it at different speeds; if it spins, you cannot fish it at that speed.
- Tarpon under about forty pounds are often better fought on the strip than put on the reel.
- An accurate backhand cast and a reliable double haul are the two highest-value things to practise before a flats trip.
