20
Apr 15

Abaco Magic Fly – UV Ghost Reverse Gotcha

When I fished with Tom Albury in Abaco a couple weeks back I started off with a fly that looked super sweet (and I was kind of proud of) and the fish absolutely hated it. I tend to be a Presentation > Fly Selection kind of guy, but there was clearly something about the fly they stabby, stabby hated.

I opened up my three fly boxes for Tom to select from the hundreds of flies I had brought along. He picked out a fly I tied on a whim and had never fished. It was a gotcha, but it had no craft fur or bunny wing. Instead, it was a wing of just more UV crystal flash. When that fly entered the water it looked like a little firework suspended in time at the moment of explosion. It lit up brilliantly, all sparkles and glitter.

The first cast with that fly and the fish charged it down, eager and determined to get it in its belly.

Kept that fly on the rest of the day and every fish that saw it ate it.

Here’s a version of that fly. Pretty simple. I put a strip of black crystal flash down the back (to mimic the vein on a shirmp) and put some UV cure goo on the back, giving it a keel and a “glass back.”

The UV Ghost Reverse Glassback Gotcha. Say that 3 times fast.

The UV Ghost Reverse Glassback Gotcha. Say that 3 times fast.


25
Oct 11

World’s best bonefish fly

There are a lot (I MEAN A LOT) of bonefish patterns out there these days, but there are a few patterns that really stand out as producers. 

This is over at the Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures blog and written by Capt. Vaughn Cochran.

For years now the consensus among professional guides in the Bahamas for the best bonefsh fly has been the “Gotcha”. A famous fly with a great story to go with it. I’ve always heard it this way…. When Ted McVay and his son Jim were staying at the Andros Island Bonefish Club, Jim snipped some strands of carpet from the interior of their taxi as they were heading to the lodge and used them to tie a new fly. Every time a bonefish ate the fly, guide Rupert Leadon would say, “Gotcha.”


29
Jun 10

Four eyes

Barrett from The Caddis Fly ties up a four-eyed gotcha.