Saltwater fly-fishers face some additional difficulties when compared to freshwater anglers. Besides the problems of gear maintenance in the face of salt, there are stronger breezes, floating detritus (kelp and debris), changing tidal currents, continually changing water depth, and fish that aren’t necessarily feeding. Some of these factors can be readily dealt with while others cannot be controlled or even managed by the fisher.. Sea breezes are nearly a constant when on the ocean, either fishing off the beach or from a boat. There are two ways to deal with wind. Severe wind will end your day of fishing, but light to moderate breezes can be dealt with by learning to cast over your opposite shoulder, or learning the Belgium cast. Most of us are right-handed, so I’ll write with this in mind. Those of you who are left-handed should apply the following directions in reverse (so to speak).

Casting over your opposite shoulder is simple and easy, although to do it well takes quite a bit of practice. To give you an idea of how this is done, stand with your rod held in the normal casting grip, your thumb on top of the grip, your forearm extended out in front, and your elbow bent about 30 degrees (comfortably). Notice that your palm is facing left and the rod tip is straight ahead and to your right side. Without moving your elbow or shoulder, rotate your wrist and forearm to the left so that your palm is now facing forward instead of left. Look at your rod tip. It should be way over to your left side. That is all there is to casting over your opposite shoulder. It is called the palm out grip and is done by rotating the wrist to the left while casting. The line will move from over your right shoulder to over your left. If the wind is blowing from right to left, this cast will allow it to carry the fly away from you rather than towards your face. Practice this a lot, it really comes in handy.

The other method is the Belgium cast. A normal false-cast casting stroke brings the fly back and forth in nearly mirror image planes. To do the Belgium cast do the following: make your forward cast as usual, but instead of drawing the line straight back again, swing the rod tip about 10 degrees to the right in a curved back-cast. If you false-cast like this a few times you will see what happens. You will be casting in an oval, similar to spinning a ball on a string over your head. This works especially well with the large streamer flies used in saltwater fly-fishing. It’s simple and effective. So long as you have constant pressure on your fly it cannot blow into your face, centrifical force makes sure of that. Practice this cast as well, it might save you an earlobe.

There isn’t a lot you can do about the floating kelp and detritus that constantly harasses the saltwater fly-fisher. You can, however, change your tactics slightly if you are fishing dry line. Switch to an intermediate (neutral density) wet line. While there is no guarantee you’ll not catch the kelp, once the line has sunk below the surface without hooking up on something, it will stay relatively clean during the retrieve.

The ocean is tidal and as such it changes current speed and direction. While current is a constant companion of river anglers and they are always taking it into consideration, a lot of sea going fly-fishers forget to mend. This is important. You must remember that fish, especially forage fish, prefer to swim into the current and salmon and other species expect to see their food moving in that direction. Mend your line accordingly and you will increase your chances of success.

Water depth is constantly changing in the oceans as well. This doesn’t affect the boat fishers as much as it does the beach anglers. To be consistently successful you must be prepared to wade deep. This requires a "shorty" vest or no vest at all, unless you want everything in your lower pockets soaked in saltwater. Neoprene waders are a must for the northern species such as salmon. While the pink salmon run in August and many people wet wade for them, coho in October in 50 degree Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) water is extremely uncomfortable without neoprene waders.

When dealing with the saltwater species, as with freshwater, you must understand how the fish’s food presents itself to the fish. Besides facing and swimming into the current most of the time, baitfish move very quickly to avoid being eaten. Thus your streamers should be retrieved rapidly in long, quick pulls. One of the primary mistakes made by novice saltwater fly-fishers when pursuing coho is to retrieve too slowly. If you are just starting out, retrieve the fly as fast as you think is necessary, then increase that speed by half again. That should get you in the right ballpark. A word of warning though, be ready, at that speed the coho can hit hard. Feed like krill or copepods, however, don’t move that fast, so your pink flies for the pink salmon should be retrieved using a moderately slow strip, or even a hand-twist, retrieve.

Speaking of hitting hard, you will have to use heavier tippets for the saltwater species. Using the standard "hook size /3 = X diameter of the tippet" will get you in the right ballpark. Flies for salmon, for example, range from #6 through #0 and 2X tippet works out to around eight to 12 pounds test. That is usually strong enough, although you may break off a few aggressive fish if the really strike hard because of the speed you are retrieving at; the immediate shock on the slack tippet can snap it. Different companies have different tensile strengths for tippets of the same diameter, so you will have to compare them to get the best ratio.

Tippet diameter is also important when trying to roll over your cast. The flies are often heavy and wind resistant. This is where the new fluorocarbon tippets really shine. They are a lot stiffer than standard monofilament and can roll over the flies much better. Unfortunately, fluorocarbon is weaker than monofilament, so you will have to go to a bigger diameter to get the right strength. They claim, however, that fluorocarbon is less visible in water than mono, so the increased diameter may not make a difference to the fish.

Bill Luscombe was born an army brat and raised in Ladner (Delta, BC) where he was raised hunting waterfowl and pheasants. He presently resides in North Cowichan on southern Vancouver Island where he has lived and worked full time as a professional forester since 1982.

He presently works in Nanaimo for the BC Forest Service and continue to write the fly-fishing column for BC Sport Fishing Magazine as well as contributing articles freelance to various outdoor magazines in western Canada. Bill Luscombe is also a BC Director of the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association.

"Catching fish is not hard. You simply need to understand what makes them tick. If you think like a fish, you will catch fish. It’s as simple as that."- Bill Luscombe

Previous Articles by Bill Luscombe:

• Fly Fishing Column
• Fly Fishing Column
• Saltwater Fly Fishing Basics
• Fly Fishing Column
• Saltwater Fly Fishing Basics - Part II
• A Caddis for the Killing
• Black Lake Brookies
• Marmot Lake Rainbows
• BC's Coastal Cutthroat Trout
• Fly Fishing Column
• Imitating Midges
• The Mayflies
• The Caddisflies
• The Dragonflies and Damselflies
• The Stoneflies
• The Other Foodstuffs
• The Attractors
• Spoiling the Rod
• Reel Stuff
• Brook Trout in BC
• A Glimpse of Kamloops Rainbows
• Autumn’s Silver Rockets
• Fishing The Drop-off
• The Cowichan River
• My Dream Waters
• Flyfishing Lines
• The Knouff – Badger Connection
• The Nazko Valley
• Vancouver Island's Spring Hatches

To visit saltwater flyfishing patterns by Bill Luscombe, visit:

• Flyfishing Pink Salmon
• Saltwater Fly Patterns
• Saltwater Fly Patterns II

For more information about Bill Luscombe and his available courses visit his home page at:

• http://members.shaw.ca/flyflinger