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Beginning Saltwater Flyfishing: First, Find your Fish

Our June 2001 contribution from Nigel Haywood

It is also easy to see why people should feel daunted when for the first time they face the sea with a fly rod in their hand. It is a very, very big place. A fly rod is small, and the distance you can cast a fly even in perfect conditions is not great.

The first question anyone asks about flyfishing in the sea is usually about tackle. It’s an occupation that attracts gear heads. You can spend vast fortunes on saltwater flyfishing equipment. It tends to be at the cutting edge of fishing technology. I’ll cover some of the main aspects in future pieces. But I need to make the point here that it can easily be a distraction. If you have some sort of balanced outfit for 7-9 weight lines, including a reel that won’t corrode too much, you’re in business.

The right first question is: how on earth can I, with puny tackle, confront the illimitable vastness of the oceans and the hostility of the elements, and catch fish on the fly? There is no straightforward answer. But the first thing you must do is keep calm. The principles you apply to any form of fishing apply in the sea. The first thing you have to do is find the fish.

It’s relatively easy in fresh water. Freshwater fish tend to be territorial. If you find a lake with large carp in it, they’re unlikely to move to another lake, at least, not without human assistance. It’s not too difficult, given time, to work out where they’re likely to be in the lake at any particular time. But find a large bass off the Cornish coast one day, and in a few weeks time it could be turning up off Beachy Head. There’s little of the “old brown trout under the bridge” about sea fishing.

In the sea, finding fish is a glorious multi-dimensional problem. Even when you’ve found them once, you won’t necessarily always find them in the same place the next time. Factors include the season, the time of day, the state of tide, the weather. What you need to do is maximise your chances. You have to have as much confidence that you’ll find fish as you would sitting by your carp lake.
There is no substitute for time spent on the water, either fishing or on reconnaissance. Fish are not evenly distributed throughout the sea, like currants in a cake. They are concentrated in certain areas. Your first task is to find two or three of these areas, and focus on them. Two or three, not just because it gets boring fishing one place all the time; but also because the wind is always too strong, and in your right ear, at the first place you choose to fish. Your locations should face different directions. Continually removing a fly from your ear or back gets boring. And painful. Tackle rage then follows (yes, we’ve all been there), and your chances of catching anything diminish to about zero.

To help you, reach for your cheque book. Your first purchases are as follows: an Ordnance Survey map, ideally 1:25,000; an Imray or Admiralty Chart; a TV with teletext; a compass; a notebook and pencil; a car. You may already have some of these. Some writers have described flyfishing in the sea as opportunistic. By this they mean you take a flyrod to the sea with your normal surf or spinning tackle. If the conditions are right, you may get a chance to flyfish. Your aim is different. You are determined to catch fish on fly tackle. You need to be able to find locations so that you can fish with a good chance of catching fish in any conditions.

If you’re right handed, it’s easiest to fish with the wind blowing gently from behind your left shoulder, with clear space for forty feet behind you, with water in front of you and to your right. You’ll seldom, once you’ve gained experience, fish in conditions like that. But your first season needs to give you confidence. Grab the OS map and a chart for somewhere not too ridiculously far away. Find some rocky points or breakwaters giving into relatively deep water. The chart helps here. If you don’t have one, you can get a fair idea by looking at the shape of the land as revealed by contour lines on a map. Long steep slopes are best. Then, consulting your tide table, go and recce at low tide. See what the bottom’s like. You need some fish holding features: rocks, weed, water currents creating slacks and eddies. Anything which will ensure a ready supply of crabs, prawns, small fish and crustaceans for fish to feed on. Look for casting positions, and places to move to as the tide comes in. Seek out other anglers, and find out what gets caught when. As long as the answers include at least one of pollack, coalfish, bass and mackerel, you’re in business (of course, there are lots of other species that will take a fly. But these are key indicators). Sit on a rock and watch the tide come in. Look for signs of fish: splashes where they’re harrying fry, shadows as they come out from under rocky ledges, tailing and rolling a few yards out.

Check likely spots with a compass. Draw quick sketch maps. Then, when you turn on your teletext on Friday night to look at the inshore weather forecast you’ll know where you can sensibly try the following morning. And if, as is sometimes the case, the microclimate on your chosen rock is different from the forecast, you’ll be able to leap in your car and head for somewhere else.

You’re now on your way to catching fish. You’ve taken the most important step: instead of being horrified at the enormity of the task ahead, you’ve broken it down into pieces. Let biteable bites and chewable chunks ever be your watchword. Your aim is to know all you can about the two or three places you’ve selected. Come close to mastering them, and you’ll confidently be able to take on almost anywhere.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Beginning Saltwater Flyfishing: Tackling Up: Rods

If you have any questions or comments regarding this article please visit our Saltwater Flyfishing Forum

Nigel Haywood was brought up on the Cornish coast, and has fished in the sea for as long as he can remember. He tied his first saltwater fly over thirty years ago, and over the last ten years has focused almost exclusively on the fly rod. He is writing a book, provisionally titled Flyfishing the British Coast for Merlin Unwin