Laying out a skiff for bluewater fly fishing largely involves moving, removing or altering the various obstructions that can tangle your fly line during the cast, or impede your ability to make a cast.

In express or flybridge offshore boats, it is usually the bridge, the tuna tower, or the outriggers that get in the way. On these types of boats, the usual approach is to have a right-handed fly fisherman cast from the port stern corner of the cockpit. The port outrigger is raised to clear the backcast, and if a fish is teased to the stern, it is brought to the starboard corner if possible. This allows the fisherman to cast in a quartering fashion toward the fish, which gives him more room for the backcast.

A similar thing can be done in skiffs. While a skiff does not have a flying bridge, and rarely has a tuna tower, it often has a T-top with various antennas and outriggers.

In Toy Boat 2, when we use our outriggers, we often run just the starboard 'rigger and a flatline from the starboard stern corner, leaving the port side clear for a right-handed caster.

Obvously, everything is moved to the other side when a left-handed caster is in the stern. And there are lots of time when we choose to run two flatlines, or a single rod rigger and a flatline instead of using an outrigger.

If you are practicing run-and-gun type tactics, you will probably have a person casting from the front of the skiff. In this case, it is important to provide a safe place to stand while casting, and for proper line management.

On Toy Boat 2, we have opted for a simple bass-boat type pedestal seat, but you can also get custom railing like that developed by Capt. Ray Chandler (see below, and the article in this issue), or use a custom leaning post.

Since we use VLMDs, line management is not an issue, but if you do not use a VLMD, consider something like the stripping mat to keep things under control.