A huge part of why so many anglers love flats fishing is that it’s difficult. The challenges that a tidal flat presents in order to get your hands on your target species can be both a joy to dissect and overcome, as well as maddeningly frustrating. Being poled around and having fish pointed out to you from a casting platform is quite difficult as it is, but trudging across a flat on your own feet without the eyes, viewing position, and technical expertise of a guide takes the challenges of flats fishing to new heights. While employing a local expert and tapping into their years of experience and refined fishing style is, without a doubt, the best way to connect with some fish, DIY success on the flats is achievable with a little grit and determination.
Whether you’re seeking to stick some stripers or reds on your home turf or add some potent tricks up your sleeve for your next tropical trip abroad, we’ve got some tips and tactics we want to pass along for identifying potentially good water and then properly fishing it. From probing Google Earth to selecting the right fly for targeting tailers, let’s talk walk and stalk flats fishing.
Identifying a New Flat
The first step to fishing a new flat is finding the right flats. A combination of maps, tidal knowledge, and fish structure is the key to narrowing down a concise list of good-looking water.
Maps
Before we dig into the nitty-gritty, let’s zoom all the way out, and I mean allll the way out. Even the most remote stretches of coastline in the world can be viewed with impressive detail through Google Earth, so while it may seem a bit ridiculous to scout fishing spots from the comfort of your home office, trust us when we say, there’s nothing ridiculous about it. Some of the greatest breakthroughs I’ve had both at home and abroad have stemmed from a simple “oooo look at that” while scrolling around Google Maps.
The key to locating worthwhile flats with maps is not to overthink it. If it looks fishy, it might be fishy. That’s enough of a reason to go get eyes on a new spot to me. Your intuition is maybe the best tool you have at your disposal, so think about coastline features that your target species might gravitate to. When I’m looking for new striper spots on the Cape, I look for close proximity to estuary systems which provide the flat with abundant bait, and changes in topography and structure on an otherwise structureless sand flat. When I’m seeking out new permit flats down in Mexico, I scan the coastline for definitive breaks in the reef that fish might utilize to access the flat, as well as expanses of turtle grass that I know they like to forage on. I also use Google Maps to simply find a potential place to park and access to public water.
Tides
It goes without saying that tides play a major role in flats fishing. Understanding how the tide cycles affect the movements and feeding habits of your target species could take a lifetime, but there are certain things you can do in order to more intimately learn where the fish are on what tide and why. This is one shortcut hiring a guide provides—they’ve spent countless hours drawing patterns between X, Y, Z, and Q, so you won’t end up fishing a seemingly sexy flat on the “wrong” tide. Most prominent guides will further admit that they acquire more data and learn how to better fish their home waters each and every day—so don’t think for a second you’ll “figure out” how the tides affect fish movement and feeding tendencies on a two-week-long trip.
My best tip for getting a pulse on how the tides are affecting your target species is to have a solid idea of how the flat changes on low vs. high tide. First and foremost, what is the tide differential? In the Northeast, the difference between high and low can be over 10 feet. Further south, however, tide differentials can be less than a foot in many places. That being said, six inches of water could be the difference between an ambitious permit sliding over a turtle grass bed to feed, and staying on the other side of the reef, so pay close attention to what you see on what tide.
If possible, walk the flat with or without a rod on dead low tide. By really scrutinizing my home flats on low water, I’ve learned where the most prominent sand bars are, as well as the ever-so-slightly deeper channels that bass (and bait) are no doubt using as highways between feeding zones. I know where the water enters the flat first and therefore when zones become fishable, and where the last of the drain and viable fishing conditions occur, or as I call it, last call. If tide differentials are minuscule, try snorkeling to better understand the bottom topography, structure, and potential main-veins or movement corridors. Seeing fish actively feeding while snorkeling around a new flat is also, of course, an encouraging sign that will have you running for your rod. It’s also wise to keep a fishing journal; recording tides and fish movement can help establish a pattern over time.
Estuary & Inlet Influence
Never, I repeat, never overlook an estuary or inlet when trying to identify quality flats. Tidal flats with close proximity to, or better yet, direct access to salt ponds, mangrove lagoons, and marsh systems are at the very top of my list for scouting. Where two different habitat types collide and blend, you have huge potential for marine life to flourish. All sorts of fish food, and oftentimes your target species as well, utilize estuary ecosystems for a plethora of reasons. Nursery habitat, foraging grounds, water chemistry, refuge from intense tidal energy – there are countless factors that may bring bait and/or fish into estuary systems, so do your best to check them out. At the very least, the mouth of an inlet system can act as a physical bottleneck through which calories get squeezed, so there’s a heightened chance that there will be game fish present.
Wind Exposure/Direction
This one is obvious, but nonetheless worth mentioning. When you’re trying to make a game plan for the day or week of flats fishing ahead of you, don’t forget to think about the wind exposure of the spots you’re considering fishing. If it’s forecasted to be a week of heavy wind from the east and you’ve got a few different flats to choose from, think about where you might find some protection out of those spots. I try not to let the wind steer my decision-making too much because I’ve had plenty of productive days while holding onto my hat, but it’s still a factor I put on the drawing board.
Talk to Locals
Don’t be afraid to talk with local fly shops and fishermen. While it can feel a bit intimidating and taboo to walk into an outfitter and ask for help finding fish, the worst they can say is “get lost”, so what do you really have to lose? Tread lightly, be polite, buy a few flies or leader material, and chances are someone will throw you a bone. You can also get plenty of quality intel on where to fish without anyone necessarily pointing out a flat on the map. “They’re loving the green crabs right now,” tells me I should focus my efforts on the rockier zones of my local flat. “The water’s cold, so the fish are mostly turned off,” tells me I should be seeking out shallower, sun-warmed flats on an outgoing tide that might be a few degrees warmer in temperature than the surrounding waters.
How to Approach & Actively Fish a New Flat
Now that we’ve discussed how to refine your search for potentially productive flats, let’s talk about a few key tactics and details to consider for actively fishing the spots you deem worth exploring.
Sun vs. Wind
The sun and the wind are the two most important factors while DIY sight fishing on the flats. While your hard-wired instincts might tell you to walk with the wind at your back or blowing favorably over rather than across your casting arm, wind is secondary in importance to the sun. Simply put, it’s true that you can’t catch what you can’t cast to, but more importantly, you can’t cast to what you can’t see. Walking with the sun at your back will give you the best possible lighting and contrast to spot fish, period. If you have to walk directly into the wind in order to have the right lighting, well, tough luck. It can be maddening seeing a fish tip up or cruise by 50 feet in front of you with 20 knots of wind in your face, but I think most anglers would agree that seeing the fish and getting a challenging shot is far more preferable than no shot at all.
I will walk the entire length or width of a flat with the sun behind me, and then, if possible, step out of the water to walk back to the start of the flat before I resume fishing, so I can have the sun behind me again. Not only do I give myself the best opportunity to spot fish, but I also give the flat a brief break from my stomping around, which may or may not help reset the feeding behavior.
Walk Slow
Walking slowly is almost as important as having the sun behind you. Moving too fast is your worst enemy; it allows opportunities for you to miss subtle fish movements and might lead you directly into a scenario where you’re not yet prepared to get your line up and make a shot. I’ve found that a slow pace also inherently encourages higher focus. This goes double for flats with variable bottoms that switch between vegetation, sand, mud, coral, or rocks. You can get a pretty solid lay of the land on a pristine white sand flat, but introduce a bunch of structure and different colored bottom substrate, and you’ll be mistakenly screaming “FISH!!” all day.
Getting your eyes keyed in and spotting a fish from a bit farther out also gives you the opportunity to perhaps get upwind into a more favorable casting position. The name of my flats fishing game is getting eyes on the fish first, and then making a plan of attack to get my fly to the fish. Sometimes it happens instantaneously, sometimes I have a moment to reposition and get into a better casting lane.
Adjust Your Eyewear to Conditions
Sight fishing demands proper eyewear. We won’t lecture you on the value of a good pair of polarized lenses, but it is worth highlighting that owning just one pair of shades for your DIY flats fishing endeavors probably won’t cut it. I keep a Rolodex of sunglasses at home for best matching the conditions at hand, and pack as many different lenses as I can fit in my luggage when I travel and fish. Quality fishing sunglasses are not cheap, but they are arguably the single most important piece of gear for having success on the flats, so do the math.
While everyone has their preferences, most anglers agree that a green-mirrored lens works great as a daily driver for sunny to mostly sunny conditions, while a brighter lens is pivotal for staying sharp on lower light, overcast days. If you think you’ll spot as many fish under cloud cover with your dark, mirrored lenses as you will with a pair of designated low-light lenses, think again. Your choice of eyewear is one of your biggest edges on the water, as well as one of the few things you have control over, so set yourself up to succeed with some mindfully selected lens options.
Comfortable & Streamlined Gear
After almost two decades of flats fishing, I’m still refining my go-to gear and apparel for walk-and-stalk sight fishing. Remaining comfortable for the entirety of your day has a lot more to do with your fishing performance than you may realize. If your feet are crammed into uncomfortable wading boots or getting chaffed from debris entering your footwear, you’re not 100% focused on spotting the next fish. A clingy sun shirt that impedes your casting stroke might be the difference between making a 50-foot and a 60-foot shot. Make sure you’re comfy out there so you can perform at your best, and your attention stays on the task at hand.
A streamlined pack system is also a very wise investment for maximizing how lethal you are on the flats. If your backpack, sling pack, or waist pack has the potential to snag fly line in the heat of the moment, re-purpose it for a different style of fly fishing. Think about how zipper pulls, tension straps, and buckles might, maybe, possibly, perhaps, hang up your fly line while casting or fighting a fish – and address it. Submersible storage is furthermore a good call because you never know what could happen out there. Things go from 0 to 100 in an instant, and all of a sudden, you’re chasing a fish trying to get backing back onto your reel while up to your chin. I converted to the (zipperless) high-speed/low-drag YETI Sidekick as my choice of snag-free, submersible flats pack a few years ago, and I’ve never looked back.
The More Time On The Water, The Better
The more time you have to really dissect a given flats fishery, the better. There’s always more data to be had, so a single fruitless walk across a new flat doesn’t necessarily mean you were incorrect about the potential there. I’ve seen some of the flats on my home water suddenly come to life with prolific striped bass feeds after weeks of spotting very few fish. Changes in moon phase, tide height, wind direction, and bait presence are all major contributors to how a flat will fish, so consider circling back to some of the water you thought looked good but didn’t end up being productive when conditions change. You had that gut feeling for a reason, so follow through.
It also goes without saying that if you’re booking a DIY saltwater trip, pencil in as many days as you can. There’s nothing worse than having to break down rods and head to the airport after finally getting a favorable forecast or figuring out a game-changing breakthrough.