ColdWaterBones

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Cold Water Bones
Feature Article for Gaff Magazine

All right, don’t get your ice augers and fishing tilts out just yet, I mean 64 to 70 degree water temperatures like we have here in South Florida
during the winter months.

Fishing Biscayne Bay during the winter months will be an exercise in wind resistance. Through the winter till the end of March the wind is your
foremost adversary on the flats. Just learn the flats in your area and the different drifts you will need to do during different wind directions, and
you will start to see a pattern emerging. The bonefish use the same routes to enter and feed on a flat. Depending on the current direction and if
it is a tidal current of one dictated by the wind and it’s direction, you will see the patterns. Just watch for those tails working and get ready for
some action!!!!!
As the water in Biscayne Bay cools down you will see the bonefish begin to congregate in larger and larger schools. This is a great advantage to
an angler due to the competition factor. When presenting bait or a fly to a school of feeding fish you have a much greater chance of a hook-up.
The fish are not as spooky in a school of a dozen or more and will move across a flat in a formation like combat aircraft leaving a very noticeable
head wake.

A bonefish will always be heading in an up current direction with his nose into the wind, so to speak. So many times I have used the term “bird
dogging” to describe a bonefish while swimming into the current, he will sway back and forth to increase the chance of picking up the scent of a
food source. Moving right to left as the fish moves up a flat just like a bird dog working into the wind across a field. It really is a beautiful thing to
watch.

Tour winter flats only after a couple of cold fronts have passed through the area to see if the fish have been active on them. By winter flats I
mean the darker colored grass flats that would warm up quicker than those lighter colored bottoms. If you don’t see fish in the ten to twelve inch
water range, move off the flat a little and look for mud’s in the two foot range. Sometimes the lower water temperatures will keep the fish from the
tailing water and move them into deeper water due to more stable temperatures.

When flyfishing for bones on the flats, I change flies almost as often as we change flats. I always try to match the bottom color with my selection
of flies as I pull onto a flat. The forage food of the bonefish will adapt a color consistent of the bottom color where they live to better camouflage
themselves against being the main course of the day. Fluorocarbon leaders are also a must to fool the bonefish, as well as a well-placed cast of
your fly or bait. If you can position yourself in the path of the fish and pull your offering straight away, the leader will be in front of the fly and not
visible to the fish.

Another trick in the wind is allowing your boat to broach (drifting down wind with the boat sideways to the wind) will slow down the speed of your
drift. This helps you to see the fish without running over them and at the slower speeds you can also stop the boat for a shot without making a lot
of noise and commotion. My Mirage HPX allows me to pole up-wind to a tailing bonefish or redfish without making a sound, yes even in a 20-knot
blow. Having a power-Pole is also a distinct advantage; I can drop the Power-Pole and stop the boat while still having my Stiffy push pole in my
hand to position my bow for the perfect angle for a presentation of a fly or a better angle to present a shrimp or crab to a fish. Little advantages
like these make a big difference when the conditions are against you

I don’t want to get off on another rant here, but I want to continue to address some issues. One of the things that drive me crazy (or crazier in my
case) is the constant running (on plane) over the grass flats. I have a Maverick Mirage HPX-V, and with my trim tabs down and my engine
trimmed up, can run in 6 inches of water without cutting the grass at all. Most of the flats boats in the 18-foot class can run in 12 to 14 inches of
water but you should take the time to go around a flat as you are heading for your next spot.

Our flats here have bonefish constantly moving on and off of them throughout the tide flows as they feed. This is why a guide will fish a flat that
someone has just moved off of, if he moves off slowly. Poling to the edge of the flat and idling till you have at least two feet of water or more is
the best way to ensure that the fish have not been spooked. Taking the time to move off a flat will also ensure that you will not dig a wheel ditch
when you jump on plane. We all have seen these holes on our flats as well as the long wheel ditches going all the way across, these scars will
take years to recover.

The other thing I have been seeing is the crowding of a flat. I have had a boat come down from plane two hundred yards away on my down-wind
side. I will do a lot of down wind drifts as we hunt the flats if the sun angle is to our backs, and by coming in on the down-wind side of me is
cutting me off and cutting off my fish. Capt. Andy Thompson who grew up on these flats taught me the lesson of shutting down long before the
area I want to fish as not to spook out the flat. You may see bonefish on a flat you run up on but they will be on the offensive from the start. I try
to come off plane and start to pole at least one hundred yards before I get to the spot I want to fish as not spook any possible fish that might be
there. Tide flow, wind direction and sun angle will dictate how to approach and the direction of drift of a boat on a flat. Consider these three
things when you approach a flat that has another boat on it. Until then I’ll see you “On the Flats”

Capt. Dave Sutton