We have quite a few posts on our blog about bonefish flies, but somehow we haven’t addressed head-on the topic of “I’m putting together a box of bonefish flies for my trip to Andros South – what should go in it?” Today we answer that question!
Let’s keep a few things in mind as we get started.
- Most of the time, our bonefish aren’t that picky. Lots of different patterns work, so the majority of our sample box is going to be made up of types of patterns, groups of colors and ranges of weights – as opposed to specific patterns that you just must have.
- That being said, there are a couple of patterns that we think you just must have, so we’re going to include them.
- We like having some lighter flies for lighter-colored bottoms, and some darker flies for darker-colored bottoms.
- It’s really important to have a range of weights for different water depths. We fish a lot of shallow water so most of our flies will be pretty light.
- We fish pretty big flies most of the time, so most of our flies might be bigger than what you’d think if you’ve chased bonefish elsewhere.
Your Bonefish Box for South Andros Island
OK, let’s build a box! We’ll try to keep it to a somewhat reasonable 40 flies – plenty for a week-long trip.
General Purpose Go-To Patterns
- 8 #2 Charlie/Gotcha/Shrimpy-type flies in white or light tan, with bead chain eyes or very small lead eyes, mostly with legs of some sort – example
- 8 #2 Charlie/Gotcha/Shrimpy-type flies in darker tan or brown, maybe with some dark green, with bead chain eyes or very small lead eyes, mostly with legs of some sort
Shallower Water
- 4 #4 Charlie/Gotcha/Shrimpy-type flies in white or light tan, with small bead chain eyes, mostly with no legs – example
- 4 #6 Charlie/Gotcha/Shrimpy-type flies in white or light tan, with small mono eyes or no eyes and no legs
Deeper Water/Big Fish/West Side
- 4 #1 or #1/0 Charlie/Gotcha/Shrimpy-type flies in white or light tan, with lead eyes, all with legs of some sort – example
- 4 #1 or #1/0 Charlie/Gotcha/Shrimpy-type flies in darker tan or brown, maybe with some dark green, with lead eyes, all with legs of some sort
Must Have Because They Work Really Well
- 4 #2 Veverka’s Mantis Shrimps
- 4 #2 or #1 Peterson Spawning Shrimps
And there you have it! So many different types of flies work in our fishery that there are many great patterns that didn’t make our box (crab patters and baitfish patterns to name a couple). But show up with a box like this one, and you’ll be really well-equipped for a week chasing bonefish on South Andros.
Awesome article – thanks for sharing your knowledge!
This was a great article. I am going to fish at Abaco this spring. Ihavve never fished this island before. Can you give me some suggestions about the type and size of flies to tie for this this trip?
Thanks, Paul
Hi Paul, thanks for stopping by! I’ve only spent a couple of days fishing on Abaco, but I think in general the same basic lineup will work well, with maybe a little more focus on the smaller #4 flies vs the #2 and bigger that we use a lot on Andros.
Have a great trip!
I have been following your blog for some time now. I have been lucky to
fish S. Andros 4 times in the last 2 years. During one of my earlier visits,
I had the good fortune to spend 4 days with the top biologists from BTT. After extensive research on my
own, they confirmed as much as 40%
of a bonefish diet consists of marine
worms. I developed and refined a pattern (Bobby’s Wonder Worm) and
during my most recent trip I caught
99% of my fish on this pattern. Big or small they all jumped on this fly.The word is starting to get out on South Andros, get wiggly !!
We couldn’t agree more Robert! We’ve had a number a guests try the same thing, they work great! In fact, we wrote up a post on that very idea last year. Check it out by clicking right here. I guess great minds fish alike! Thanks for reading!