Very Important Things
Bonefish
Rub Your Fly in the Sand
So you’re out on some beautiful bonefish flat. You’ve thrown on a new leader designed perfectly for the flats. You’ve picked a fabulous bonefish fly. You’ve tied it on with a non-slip mono loop. You’re not done yet!
Reach down onto the flat, grab a little handful of sand from the bottom, and rub your fly around in it. Bonefish have a very sensitive sense of smell, and this simple little step will help take off any leftover smell of sunscreen/head cement/this morning’s bacon.
We’ve even heard the theory that different flats smell different to bonefish, and this may make your fly smell more like it’s ‘home’. How true that is we’ll never know, but we do know that rubbing your fly in some sand is easy, takes about 5 seconds, and might help…so why not?
Hey, want a whole bunch more tips on bonefishing? You should download our free Bonefishing 101 Guide, if you haven’t already!
More on Flies for Bonefish
Loaded Up
Somebody did a darned fine job tying flies in preparation for their trip to Andros South.
Nice work, Bjorn!
More on Bonefish Flies
Tying Flies for Andros Bonefish
Tom Larimer was one of our attendees at Andros FIBFest 2011 a couple of weeks back. Tom’s focused mainly on steelhead as his day job, and today he draws a very interesting parallel between steelhead and bonefish in the realm of fly design. Thanks for the thoughts, Tom!
Be Creative
One of my favorite elements of tying steelhead flies is that you can be as creative as you want. A Plain Jane “Green Butt Skunk” will catch you fish if dressed properly for the conditions. However, put some jungle cock eyes on, use died golden pheasant for the tail and some polar bear for the wing and the juju factor goes way up. In the end, these materials probably don’t do as much for the fish as they do for the angler… they make the fly yours. There’s something about putting a little of your own personality into a fly that gives you confidence in your little trooper. Plus, it’s fun to experiment with new materials and variations of dressing.
Before a recent bonefish trip to Andros South, I send a good amount of time filling my box with recommended flies. I studied Deneki’s Five Favorite Bonefish Flies on the Internet and did my best to emulate the patterns. As a steelhead fly tier, experimentation is the only reason I tie. However, on a trip to the holy land of bonefish I wanted my bugs to be perfect.
After fishing on Andros for a couple of days, I was happy to realize bonefish are very much like steelhead – presentation trumps the silver bullet we think we finally tied. Yes, the fly has to be the right color, shape and silhouette. Furthermore the bead chain or lead eyes must match the depth you’re fishing. However, you can bring the juju factor up and be creative with your flies.
As an experiment, I tied a couple variations of a reverse gotcha style pattern that was dubbed the “Bahamian Condom”. Basically, the entire thing was made of rubber legs, a little crystal flash and lead eyes. The fish crushed it! The whole experiment made me start thinking about all the crazy materials I could use for bonefish flies.
Next time you’re headed down south, don’t be afraid to put a little of yourself in your fly patterns. Experiment and create at the vise. I think you’ll find it incredibly rewarding to catch a big Andros bone on a pattern of your own design.
More on Bonefish Flies
Idylwilde Flies for South Andros
Look, we didn’t mean to have two posts in a row about Idylwilde flies. Somehow our Minister of Propaganda and our Triple Director of Alliances got their wires crossed – these things happen! So on with today’s post…
Michael White is a friend of ours. He reps Idylwilde flies to finer fly shops in the Southern Rockies. He’s fished at Andros South a bunch.
We asked him to put together his 5 favorite flies for chasing bonefish on South Andros. He complied. They’re all Idylwilde flies. Here’s the list.
5 Must-Have Idylwilde Flies For South Andros
- Morrish’s West Side: The West Side of South Andros is a big bone hunter’s dream and this fly from Idylwilde is the ammo you need. In sizes 2 and 4 it’s the perfect combination of Gotcha yumminess, wiggly legs, subtle color and perfectly placed lead eyes.
- Marts’ Medium Rare: This is a killer subtle presentation fly for the times bones are spooky or on shallow flats. Small bead-chain eyes and a little puff of pink rabbit at the tail entice bones to chase and chew.
- Marts’ Big Bone: For the deep water big boys on the East Side. Size 1/0 is not for the faint of heart. This fly definitely gets down quick and is a nice meal for the biggest bones that cruise the deeper edges just off the flats.
- Morrish’s Puff Pastry: Size 6, black nickel eyes and sparse profile make this a killer option on those shallow, harder sand flats. I love to fish this pattern on the southeast of the island.
- Paulson’s Bunky Shrimp: This little pattern, in sizes 4& 6, is a uniquely tied “shrimpy” pattern. I used this last May to great success on the shallower East side flats when we were hammering the bones coming out of the inland mangroves. It turns over delicately at distance and the braid over the top of the body helps to keep it gack-free.
