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Tom Rowland Podcast

Sep 17, 2019

Have you ever caught a bonefish on a jig where you did not see the bonefish you were just blind casting? Well, a lot of people do that and it is a very, very, very effective way to add a few fish to your days total. I learned this from the king of blind casting for bonefish, Mitch Howell. He has won so many tournaments in the Florida Keys and has scored so many points by using this technique and it is very simple.

You need to be in a place where there are bonefish. Of course. And oftentimes the water is a little too deep to see them. But one of the techniques that we started using was to be able to sight cast and throw the jig for bonefish. Let's just say the sun is over on your right-hand shoulder and you can't see very well… What we would do is we would have one angler with a jig and just like a Paul Tejera backbone jig, could be any type of jig, quarter ounce, half-ounce jig...

And what you would do is just throw it as far as you can, kinda like you're fishing for Barracuda. Throw it as far as you can directly into the glare cause you're not gonna see any fish there. The other angler is standing, waiting for sight fishing opportunities and the guy that's blind casting the jig is not fishing anywhere where we could see a fish so he's throwing right into the glare and he's keeping this jig just slightly above the top of the grass so moving it kinda slow.

But moving it fast enough to where it's not getting caught in the grass and you are bringing it kind of steadily back with a little pulsing of the rod tip. It's just kinda staying just over the tips of the grass and any color jig is fine. Doesn't really matter, but you need to have a lot of them because oftentimes you'll get snipped by a baby Barracuda or even a really good sized Barracuda. You can catch all kinds of other stuff while you're doing this jack crevalle, barracudas, yellow jacks, all kinds of things but this technique can really, really help you to learn new areas, to help you learn that they're far more bonefish there than you thought…

In a tournament situation, you can really, really do well with this because you are scoring points on artificial, which are traditionally more points than live bait and fewer points than fly. But artificial points are good. So maybe you get 100 points for a bait caught fish, 150 for a jig caught fish, artificial caught fish and 200 for a fly caught fish. Oftentimes, the rules would be something like that. So if you can catch some on a jig, you're getting those extra points and that can lead to being able to win the tournament in the Redbone TournamentThe SlamThe Bay Bone, things like that.

So blind casting for bonefish is something that people don't think of, but it doesn't have to stop in the Florida keys. You get those late afternoon situations in the Bahamas when the Bahamas recover, and we're able to go back over there and fish again. You can do the same thing. You can also have anglers that aren't quite up to the task of sight casting for Bonefish, and they can be throwing that jig all day long and they'll probably catch more than you will.

So all you're doing is throwing as far as you can, light braid, like a seven-foot rod with ten-pound braid a light liter and you're keeping that jig just slightly over the tips of the grass. However, deep that is. You'll be surprised, you'll catch him. You'll catch the bonefish.

Check out the show notes:

00:00:34 - Today we will be talking about Bonefish. In particular how to catch a bonefish when you can’t see it when you have to blind cast.

00:00:38 - Have you ever caught a bonefish on a jig?

00:00:52 - I learned this trick from the king, Mitch Howell

00:01:07 - This is a simple but effective technique

00:01:11 - Where to be and how to set up using a Paul Tejerajig or some other kind

00:01:52 - Throw directly into the glare

00:02:22 - When pulling back, pull with a little pulsing of the rod tip, staying just over the tips of the grass

00:02:54 - It is helpful for learning new areas and new ways to catch Bonefish

00:03:02 - Tournament fishing, why blind casting with a jig is effective and a smart approach

00:04:32 - You’ll be surprised if you try this out. If you have a friend who needs to hear this, share the episode with him, and let me know what you think.

People or Organizations Mentioned:

Mitch HowellPaul TejeraRedbone TournamentThe SlamThe Bay Bone