Story and Photography by Danno Wise

Throughout late summer and early fall, every Texas bay will often provide ideal sight casting conditions.

The lure landed a few feet in front of the redfish hovering over the seagrass in the clear-green water. The fish stared blankly at the bait as it slowly descended toward the bay bottom. Then suddenly, it darted forward, grabbed the bait, swirled around in the other direction and began the first of several drag-scorching runs toward the horizon.

Sight fishing in September is visual fishing at its finest. As many sportsman trade rods for guns with various hunting seasons getting underway, a good number of the anglers remaining in the bay are hunting also. However, they are doing so with the cork handle of a graphite rod firmly in hand.

For those unfamiliar with this type of fishing, sight casting is more akin to hunting than fishing in many ways. Though sight casting is considered a somewhat technical angling pursuit, there are some basic “rules” that can help any fishermen get started in this visual fishing game.

Time of Day

Beyond the excitement of seeing the fish and watching the take, one of the best thing about sight fishing is there is absolutely no need for an early start. The very practical reason for this is that the sun needs to be well above the horizon in order to have enough light to see fish well. Without sunlight, even the clearest of water will appear dark. Conversely, a high sun unimpeded by clouds allows anglers’ vision to penetrate even slightly stained water.

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