Casting Smart

By CA Richardson for Seawatch Magazine

Smart Casting is a term that I utilize in my Flats Class V2.0 seminar series to describe where the presentation has to be placed to increase the odds of a fish striking the lure. Often what is considered a well- placed cast by many anglers is occasionally too close to the targeted fish and frequent- ly results in a negative response to the angler’s presentation. By using the Smart Casting strategy, the angler presents his lure at a prudent distance away from the actual fish or structure he intends to target which allows the lure to achieve the proper speed and natural appearance when it ar- rives in the strike zone.

Proper lure speed is accomplished by understanding what forage the angler is try- ing to imitate and allowing enough time and/ or distance to duplicate that action. Keep in mind... game fish are generally startled when a lure is cast uncomfortably close to them in most cases that’s the very reason why a safe cast is necessary. For example, if I want to burn a paddle tail jig, mimicking bait fish behavior, speeding through a dock light to produce a reaction strike from a snook. I would first smart cast my jig 12

to 15 feet past the back edge of the lighted area into the dark so that I could achieve the ideal tempo by the time the jig entered the lighted area (intended strike zone). An- other instance, might be when fishing pot holes (sandy areas) in shallow grass flats for sea trout and redfish. Often the best pre- sentation, for a soft plastic crustacean look, is a cast well past the intended pot hole so that you can gently reel the lure carefully to the far edge of the pot hole and drop it. At that point, you can either apply a slow drag & pause (crab retrieve) or use a subtle lift & fall (shrimp retrieve) to get the desired reaction from the game fish within the pot hole! By cautiously not placing the cast ini- tially in the “strike zone”... your lure has the time and distance to behave the way you intended it to look and significantly in- crease the odds of generating a strike.

Other factors you have to consider when smart casting is depth of water, current direction and “angle of lure ap- proach”. Water depth becomes a factor in situations where the angler has to permit the lure to reach a certain depth before it can move through the intended strike zone. For example, if an angler is utilizing a crank bait over submerged structure, he has to allow for a much longer cast to give the lure time to attain depth and make contact with the structure to draw a strike. Whereas, in deep strong current, it’s important to bring the lure in the same direction as the current flow be- cause the targeted game fish are oriented to feed in that direction of flow... in spite of the intimidating “head-on” angle. And the final consideration, when game fish are laid up in a slow or static current scenario in shallow wa- ter they rarely react well to a lure aggressively approaching their position in a “head-on” manner. This “head-on” lure motion is a very un-natural “angle of approach” for imitating prey and results are typically poor for a game fish to strike. Summing it up, smart casting by definition is logically placing the lure at a measured distance away from the strike zone as to not startle the game fish from the initial surface entry but allowing for enough time and space for the said lure to operate prop- erly, that’s it!

Hey, fish smart the next time you head out to your favorite fishing hole and you just might be surprised by the outcome!