Effectively Spotting Bonefish and Permit on Bahamas Flats
Introduction
Among the skills required for successful flats fishing for bonefish and permit in the Bahamas is the ability to spot fish. Like accurate fly casting, there is a direct correlation between the number of fish landed and the efficiency with which they’re spotted. Spotting fish is a skill to be honed and there is no substitute for time on the water, but there is some advice we can offer from afar to help prepare for the ‘real thing.’
With help from our artist and angler friend Bri Dostie and the Soul Fly crew, we’ve put together an infographic that breaks down the angler’s point of view into three distinct zones; additionally, we’ve added some suggestions and specific instructions on spotting fish related to these zones. Of course, nothing in fly fishing is hard-and-fast, but we hope these general suggestions will aid our guests as they prepare for their next trip to the Berry Islands.
The three fish-spotting zones: Within 100 feet; 100 to 200 feet; and, 200 feet and beyond.
How to Look & What to Look For
When it comes to effectively spotting bonefish and permit in the Berry Islands, practice and repetition are always the surest paths to success. Thankfully, on most trips to the Berrys, anglers will have ample opportunities to spot fish in a wide variety of situations and from varying distances. There will also undoubtedly be plenty of chances to see things that look like fish but aren’t. These experiences can be equally as helpful in learning to spot fish, for in the search for bonefish and permit, it sometimes helps to know what not to look for and what is not a fish.
Because the ability to see bonefish and permit is affected by conditions such as sun position, clouds, glare, wind, and more, how we look for fish changes from day to day, flat to flat, and hour to hour. In terms of where to look, a great and general rule is to look where you can see. This applies to both direction and distance, so if the conditions only allow you to see up to 80 feet between 11 and 1 o’clock, as example, then that’s where you should focus your efforts. Bear in mind however, that this ‘window of visibility’ can and will change over the course of a single flat, and certainly after moving to a different one, as the angle of the sun is always changing.
In a perfect scenario, we clearly spot bonefish or permit swimming slowly over a light-sand bottom and it’s obvious. But as often as not, we do not see the fish themselves; rather, we see the shapes, shadows, or signs that the fish makes. As examples, bonefish themselves are incredibly camouflaged but they still leave shadows or puffs of mud on the flat as they swim across or feed on it. Similarly, the individual bonefish in a school will oftentimes be difficult to see but their reflections – brief or repeated sparkling, shining, and twinkling areas in the water – are much easier to spot.
“When scanning for fish, I’m looking for tails, shadows, nervous water, splashing, and mud beds,” says Soul Fly Lodge head guide Percy Darville. “I’m constantly looking all over the flats as far as I can identify, even as far as 500 feet, if visibility allows.”
Bonefish, dorsals, and tails over a light-sand bottom.
In lieu of a clear visual of the fish, a school of cruising bonefish will often create a wake on the surface in sizes corresponding to how many fish are in the school. If the school is cruising very slowly and actively feeding, the wake may appear more as nervous water (shimmering, choppy, or rippled water with a higher frequency or vibration than its surrounding water) than a classic wake in the shape of a V. In skinny water, the same school may reveal itself further when the tails and dorsal fins of the fish break the surface. We may also see parts of them more readily than the fish themselves; premonitions of the fish. We may see a tail or a dorsal fin breaking the surface, catch the nose of a fish sliding across a light spot on the flat, or perhaps the rear-half of a fish as it swims over turtle grass.
“The way I scan for fish is dependent on the species I’m targeting,” says Soul Fly guide Brent Darville. “With bonefish, I’m looking for traces of feeding – mud or divots in the sand – as well as shadows, nervous water, or any type of movement. For permit, I’m watching for moving sting rays, feeding fish but also taking into account tide movements. In terms of distances, my head is constantly on a swivel; either 20 feet in front of the boat or as far out as I can see.”
Permit typically move faster across the flats than bonefish and travel in deeper water, so they can be more challenging to spot; thankfully, permit have some good tells that give themselves away. So when looking for permit, we are often looking for shadows of the fish, a small wake or ‘push’ of water, or – if we’re lucky – the tell-tale and heart-stopping sight of a permit tail sticking out of the water. Stingrays are especially noteworthy when looking for permit as they will flush crabs and shrimp from the flat with their own feeding; permit will often follow the rays to gorge on the food that the ray has missed.
Permit and sting ray moving together over a waist deep flat.
Additionally, an awareness of the surroundings and situation will allow you to take advantage of and work with them, as opposed to against them. In other words, by interpreting the sightfishing conditions, we can arm ourselves with a better sense of where to look and what to look for. As examples, if the wind is up and the water surface is choppy, we should be looking for flashes, shadows, and shapes of fish more than tails and wakes, and be ready to cast quickly when we spot a fish. Or, if the air is calm, the water is flat, and we can see in the water easily, we should extend our search to further distances to try and see the fish as soon as we can. Depending on the color of the bottom we’re fishing over, we can also anticipate the color of the fish and how they will appear over the bottom: light sand bottoms will make fish appear more silver or translucent, while grass-covered flats will bring out the greens and grays of the fish. In general, bonefish and permit show up a shade or two darker than the bottom that they are feeding across.
Lastly, take solace in the fact that you’re not alone out there! Your guide and your fishing partner will also be doing their best to spot fish, and together you’ll be able to effectively locate them, communicate their whereabouts and behavior, and make a good shot.
Kyle Schaefer, co-owner of Soul Fly, boils it down to the following: “It starts with believing that you will be able to see the fish. When spotting bonefish and permit, we are training our brains, over time, to hypothesize, recognize, and catalogue – very quickly – what our eyes are seeing on the flats. The more time we spend on the flats, the quicker our brains will be able to distinguish subtle signs and either categorize them as fish or a fishy-looking bottom. Over time, your brain learns exactly what to look for and, magically, out of your peripheral vision, attention is called to the fish because the brain now knows exactly what it’s looking for.
“A tell-tale sign is that most bonefish and permit are moving. So if you’re distracted by a shape on the bottom that has morphed into the fish of your dreams, ask yourself if the shape is moving or stationary. Some fish will lay up and won’t move, but that’s more of a rarity than the rule.”
Wakes and a tail at distance.
Fish-Spotting Zones
To help prepare for spotting bonefish and permit while at Soul Fly Lodge, we’ve designated three zones of viewing to consider when on the casting platform: within 100 feet; 100 to 200 feet away; and 200 feet and beyond. Depending on the conditions, we’ll focus our efforts in each zone accordingly, and we’ll perceive bonefish and permit differently in the zones.
“I scan from as close as I can to as far as I can see,” says Soul Fly guide Freddie Dames. “Anything I pick up, I check out. Any shadows and any grass I see, I scan it as best as I can. Sometimes even shadows from the waves can fool you.”
In average sightfishing conditions, we should spend roughly half our time looking within 100 feet, 30% from 100 to 200 feet, and the remaining 20% of time searching beyond 200 feet. But, in optimal or excellent conditions, these percentages may invert and we may be looking beyond 200 feet for half or the majority of our time. Conversely, in poor sightfishing conditions (wind, clouds, glare, etc.), we may only be able to see within 100 feet (or less), so that’s where we should concentrate all our time.
“When I’m scanning for fish, I normally use a six-second interval looking from left to right,” Soul Fly’s Chester Darville states. “I’m also scanning behind me and all around me, looking for nervous water, tailing fish, puffs of mud, or even large clouds of mud in the water. On average, I spend about 70% of my day scanning within 100 feet from the boat; about 25% of my time from 100 to 200 feet, and the rest outside that range.”
Within 100 Feet
In this closest zone, we have the best visibility but we also have the least amount of time with which to present the fly. We expect to see entire bonefish and permit, parts of fish, and tails of fish (as singles, doubles, and in school) but we’ll need to process these sights quickly and determine the speed and direction the fish are moving. Presentations need to be made with as few false casts as possible and as gently as possible, and when the fly lands, we should be prepared to remove slack from the system as needed and begin stripping immediately.
Within 100 feet, we see entire bonefish and permit, parts of fish, and tails.
100 to 200 feet
This middle viewing zone offers a good balance of visibility and timing. We should be able to pick up fish relatively easy, as well as shadows, wakes, tails, and more, but we also have an ample amount of time to prepare for the presentation cast. Permit can be seen in their entirety in this range, but bonefish may appear only as shadows or nervous water. Once the fish have been spotted, we can exchange some words with the guide to develop a presentation strategy based on their distance, direction, and speed; the guide may reposition the boat accordingly. We’ll have time to quickly double-check our stacked line, if we like, and we’re able to take some extra false casts to help gauge distance and accuracy.
From 100 to 200 feet, we can see fish relatively easy, as well as shadows, wakes, tails, and more.
200 feet and beyond
Beyond 200 feet, under average conditions, we may only be able to see wakes, nervous water or get inexplicit, fleeting glimpses of fish. But, at this distance, our time to approach the fish we do see is maximized so we are, in many ways, best suited to make great presentations. Our guides have a much better view in this zone (given their point of view from the poling platform), so they will spend more of their time looking here. Still, we should not refrain from looking as far as we can. When we do spot a fish in this zone, it’s a best practice to keep your eyes coming back to the other two zones as well, scanning quickly for fish that have come into those distances and which will require a quicker presentation.
“If I’m looking for bonefish, I’m only scanning in two feet of water because I know that’s their terrain and they’re only going to be in that depth of water,” says Soul Fly guide Travis Sands. “For permit though, if I’m on a ‘ray highway’ – known routes that stingrays take – I’m looking specifically for rays, which are easy to see from pretty far out. But when I’m looking for free-swimming permit, I’m scanning from 50 feet to 100, and then out to 200. I usually don’t look within 50 feet while permit hunting, because within that space of time, it’s too late and the fish already know we’re there. Instead, I’m always looking beyond their ‘spook radius’ from the boat: I start from 50 feet, scanning from left to right and never getting locked into one spot. I’m looking for any movement at all, if I’m not seeing any rays.”
At 200 feet and beyond, we may only be able to see wakes, nervous water or get inexplicit, fleeting glimpses of fish.
False Alarms
While poling across a flat and spotting bonefish and permit, anglers and guides see a constantly-changing seascape that’s filled with shapes, colors, shadows, and other visuals that look like fish but aren’t. Learning to quickly distinguish between fish and not fish is a key to effectively spotting the fish we’re targeting, so it’s worth identifying some common ‘false alarms.’
Sharks are common on the flats around the Berry Islands and because they’re so big, they are easy to spot. From afar, a quick glimpse at a shark could look promising but after a few sightings, anglers will be able to recognize them by their size and also their movement in the water – a side-to-side swimming motion, as if making an S-shape.
Dark patches, texture changes and other inconsistencies on the flats, can also make for color changes that look fishy. Comparing darker spots to another stationary object can help identify it or, as the skiff moves consistently across the flat, if the spot appears to move in the same direction and speed as what’s around it, we can be reasonably certain that it’s not a fish. Additionally, pointing the fly rod at the spot will alert the guide that you’re eyeing something and they’ll be able to confirm or dis-confirm what it is, given their superior vantage point (and experience).
Clouds and glare will also add fish-spotting challenges. “When scanning for fish on cloudy days, I’m looking more for tails or pushes of water, nervous water, and ripples; anything like that when the light isn’t ideal,” says Travis. “But on sunny days, you can see a tail but only when the light hits it just right, so I’m looking for any movement on the bottom.”
False alarm: shark!
Conclusion
Keen fish-spotting abilities will undoubtedly increase the number of chances and the number of high-quality chances at bonefish and permit while fishing the flats in the Bahamas. Success can be had by keeping the three different viewing zones in mind – within 100 feet, 100 to 200 feet, and beyond 200 feet – and considering what to look for in each, as well as the situation and conditions and their effect on spotting fish. With practice, some general guidance, and a little trial-and-error, every guest at Soul Fly Lodge will be able to spot both species effectively and efficiently.
Just don’t forget your polarized sunglasses!
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