The art of flatlining 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 flatline technique in many situations in the Florida Keys. We flatline when we’re yellowtail fishing, yellow jack fishing, many times when we’re mahi fishing, and in several other types of snapper and grouper fishing.
We use different sized jigs when flatlining. The weight or size of the jig is determined by the speed of the current and the depth of the water. Flatlining 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, your bait is held up in the current and it doesn’t look natural to the game fish. Go too fast and you typically pay out too much line and can’t realize the strike from the game fish.
When you flatline, let out just as much as the current wants to take. Many times a fish like a snapper will look at the bait for 30 seconds or a minute before it decides to eat. If it sees the bait stop or hesitate, it will back off.
I compare it to you going to McDonald’s, opening up your cheeseburger wrapper, and your cheeseburger floats up in the air. Your first reaction would be shock, and your second reaction would be “I’m not gonna eat that.” Same with the fish.
Making your bait flow naturally with the current through flatlining is only part of it. The other part is hiding the hook in the bait and using the smallest pound test fluorocarbon line as possible in order to fight and still land the game fish that you’re targeting.
Another tip is to anchor your pinky finger on your rod hand behind the reel seat. It’s also important to keep your rod tip down, almost touching the water, and point your rod at the target while flatlining. By keeping your rod tip down, you’re keeping the wind from bowing your line, making a cleaner presentation to the fish and keeping yourself away from the people who are flatlining at your sides at the back of the boat.
Keeping your rod tip down also allows you to lift your rod tip quickly when you get a hit, which is called setting 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 feed the line out with your fingers. When the line flows through your fingers faster than the current is moving, you know you have a fish. That’s when you flip your bail, reel down on the fish, set the hook and then keep your rod tip up.
If it’s a big fish, repeatedly lift your rod while keeping your reel still, then reel quickly and lower the rod. Doing this can help with the hydrodynamics of the fish and can bring it in with a ziz-zag motion, making it a lot tougher for a shark or barracuda to take your game fish.
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 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 – or if you totally miss the fish and you know your bait’s gone – always reel in high and fast. This gets your line out of the chum slick as quickly as possible, because every fishing line in the chum slick spooks the fish.
So next time you’re fishing in a current, try flatlining. It’s the best way to present your bait naturally to the game fish so it doesn’t just sit there and helicopter in the current. Go with the flow – not too fast and not too slow.
