Here’s another fly we think you should add to your box for South Andros Island – Quigley’s Bonefish Tickler by Idylwilde.
Why We Like It
- It works in a range of water depths. It’s on the smaller side for South Andros (#4), but its small lead eyes sink it quickly.
- It’s very sparsely dressed, which helps it enter the water without too much of a ‘plop’.
- It’s essentially built around rubber legs, and our fish love rubber legs.
- It’s relatively light colored but has quite a bit of contrast. We’ve used it with success on both lighter- and darker-colored bottoms.
Love/Hate Relationship
Another thing we love about this fly has to do with your fly selection during the course of a day of bonefishing. Something about its shape and color combination (maybe the orange legs?) gets a strong reaction, one way or the other.
We saw two responses to this fly on South Andros. 9 times out of 10, fish lit up as soon as they saw it, and raced to pounce on it like a kitten to a ball of string. 1 time out of 10, they blasted away at Mach 2 when it got anywhere near them.
In our fishery that’s actually great – blowing 1 shot out of 10 is not a big deal, because you’ll have plenty more. The aggressive positive reaction we got most of the time was really fun and really effective. And back to the fly selection topic – based on our experience you never need to ask yourself “hmmm, was that a refusal?” They’re probably going to love it, but if they happen to hate it on that particular flat, just change up and move on.
You know, that’s funny. Bones have the same reaction to flies w/ orange in them down here in Cayman. Usually they pound em, sometimes not. Eh, bonefish are crazy.
Agreed – just crazy enough!
TRUTH.