Flat Lining

By: Capt. Joel Brandenburg

The art of flat lining is simply the ability to allow your bait to flow from the boat out to the game fish at the same rate and speed as the flow of the current. We use the flat line technique in many situations in the Florida Keys. We flatline when we yellowtail fish, yellow jack fish, many times when we’re mahi fishing in several other types of snapper and grouper fishing. We use different sized jigs when flat lining and the weight or size of the jig is determined by the speed of the current and the depth of the water.
Flat lining is the best way to present a live bait, fish, live shrimp, or cut bait to the game fish so it goes with the flow just like your chum and looks natural to the game fish. If you go too slow then your bait is held up in the current and it doesn’t look natural to the game fish and if you go too fast, then you typically pay out too much line and can’t realize the strike from the game fish. When you flat line let out just as much as the current wants to take.
Many times, for example a snapper will look at the bait for 30 seconds or a minute before he decides to eat it and if he sees it stop or tick or hesitate, he’ll back off. I compare it to you going to McDonald’s opening your cheeseburger, wrapper, and your cheeseburger floats up in the air when you unwrap it. Your first reaction to your cheeseburger floating out of the wrapper would be shock, your second reaction would be I’m not going to eat that cheeseburger, or something is wrong with it. Same with the fish. Making your bait flow naturally with the current through flat lining is only part of it.
The other part is hiding the hook in the bait and using the smallest pound test mono fluorocarbon line as possible in order to still fight and land the gamefish that you’re targeting. Some other important tips regarding flat lining are to anchor your pinky finger on your rod hand behind the reel seat, and it’s important to keep your rod tip down, almost touching the water and point your rod at the target while flat lining.
By keeping your rod tip down, you’re keeping the wind from bowing your line, makes a cleaner presentation to the fish, and keeps you out of the people who are flatlining to the left and right of you at the back of the boat. Also, by keeping your rod tip down, it allows you to lift your rod tip quickly when you get a hit, which is called setting the hook. If your rod is already up in the air, it makes it hard to set the hook.
Another good trick to remember while flatlining is to not just let the line flow out of your reel. Use your reeling hand to manipulate the line out with your fingers and when the line flows through your fingers faster than the currents taking it then you know you have a fish that’s when you flip your bail real down on the fish, set the hook and then keep your rod tip up. If it’s a big fish lift your rod slow and reel down quickly, and by doing that motion you manipulate the fish to come towards you and makes him come in more hydrodynamic. Plus, by lifting your rod slowly and reeling down quickly, it brings your fish in at a zigzag motion and makes it a lot tougher for a shark or barracuda to take your game fish.
Something else to remember when flat lining is if you get a hit and you miss the fish, send your bait back out in the mix for 15 or 20 seconds and give the game fish and another shot at the title. You may have all or some of your bait left on the hook and they’ll come back for it. If they don’t come back for it after feeding it back for it, you totally miss the fish and you know your baits gone. Always reel in high and fast this gets your line out of the chum line as quick as possible, because each, and every line in the chum line spooks the fish. Plus, by bringing your hook or jig in high and fast will allow you to hook a fish that might have hit your bait and come at you or fish that you didn’t know was on your line that is on your line.
So, next time you’re fishing in a current try flat lining, it’s the best way to present your bait naturally to the gamefish so it doesn’t just sit there and helicopter in the current. Go with the flow, not too fast and not too slow!

— For a charter with Ana Banana fishing company and CAPTAIN, Joel or Jojo Brandenburg Call 305-395-4212 cell 813-267-4401 office or visit our website at Marathonkeyfishingcharters.com or visit us in person at Ana Banana marina located at 11699 Overseas Highway.