So… time to sit back down at the vice and start turning out some flies. Unlike my flies for El Pescador, this time I’ll be moving right on past those #8’s and #6’s… kind of past the #4’s and focusing on big flies… 2’s and larger with, of course, the 4’s and 6’s… just in case. Looks like not many of these patterns will need weed guards, which is nice as well.
Big Steel for Big Bones
It is nice to tie with a purpose… with a destination in mind… with a real reason to turn the bobbin.
Andros South, as you might expect, has some thoughts on flies you might want to have along. The Deneki Blog is content rich.
Compared to most in the bonefishing world, the flies that we like to fish on South Andros tend to be an unusual combination of big and light. For anglers wanting to load up a fly box before their trip, that can make it a little hard to buy commercially available flies – most widely available bonefish flies are either light enough but too small (probably designed for places like Belize and Christmas Island), or big enough but too heavy (probably designed for the Florida Keys).
via Bonefish Flies – 5 Favorites For South Andros.
Yes… I think I’m going to enjoy this…
That should work...
- Unique Post
Your fly tying bench is way to clean looking. Mine always looks like a tornado hit it. Good luck on Andros!
I’m working on it… those big binders really help though… need more large bead chain eyes though.
That selection of hooks looks exactly like mine. My last bonefish was on the 1/0 hook and a big old heavy yellow-white clouser. Big fish, big hook.
Do lots of rubber legs for Andros.
Can’t wait to get back to some nice bonefish again this year!
There is one place you can get flies that are both big and light enough: Flymasters of Indianapolis. I designed a selection of flies for them a while ago and they got Mustad to produce them. One of the flies they wanted was a pattern for Bahamas bones, so I tied up the Gotcha Clouser (http://www.bigcharlieandros.net/images/Gotcha-Clousers-small.jpg) for them. However, as such things always go they tied them with much lighter lead eyes than I’d use, logically reasoning that not too many anglers (who buy their flies) would be fishing in 3-6 feet of water. Instead they chose to split the difference and came up with a weight that works in average bonefish depth but is still tied on a bigger hook.
Interesting stuff Davin. Sounds like most of the water I’ll be fishing will be skinny water. The recommendations from Deneki for Andros South point to bigger flies, but lighter flies… no lead eyes, but 2’s to 1/0’s with bead chain eyes. When you head to Andros are you fishing the deeper water?
Yeah. Mostly when I’ve fished there with Charlie we’re in a minimum of knee deep water, which isn’t deep for bones, but certainly not the average tailing depth. We’re specifically targeting big bones when we fish with him and you usually don’t find those in the ultra-shallow stuff… although you’d be surprised from time to time.
The other reason we like heavy flies is you don’t have to lead the fish too much; the fly gets down to them fast. That minimizes the risk of the fish changing directions on you and missing your fly altogether.
Finally, we actually like to fish in windy weather. It makes the fish much less spooky and brings the big girls into shallower water. Of course, we like it NOW, but that’s only because we’ve been subjected to REALLY windy conditions every time we’ve been over there. It’s got to the point where we kind of feel big wind means big fish… although that is probably not necessarily true. So, if it’s windy and you use a light fly the wind will actually blow the flyline across the water, pulling the fly off the bottom and out of the way of the fish. If it’s really windy it can prevent the fly from sinking down to fish level at all. A heavy fly actually anchors the line, allowing you to fish properly.
If I were you, I’d have a few heavy guys thrown in there just in case. Never know when that wind could blow.
In that deeper water it makes pretty good sense to have a heavier fly… I can see that. I’d bet there aren’t a lot of guides that chase them in the deeper water though… which would be a compliment to Charlie.
For Andros in March… I don’t need a monster. I’d take a few 8 pounders and be very, very happy with it all. I just hope those fish don’t have an idea of how bad I want it… desperation is a horrible cologne.