I am, really, a novice at all things bonefish (sadly, interest level does not equate to experience). Still, it makes me feel a bit retro to be tying up one of the “early” bonefish patterns, The Horror.
The guide I ended up booking for my one day of guided fishing in Grand Bahama, Captain Perry, has the Horror on his list of flies to have in your box. I read in Chico’s book (read the Midcurrent.com review) that he still likes the pattern as well. Doesn’t require a lot of materials (brown buck tail, chenille, thread). Sounds good.
So, I sat down and tied some. Man… these have to be the easiest flies to tie since the Sweet Earnies!
E-Z, but still effective (according to folks that would know)
Have you ever said to yourself “Man, I’d tie a Gotcha but it is just too hard!”
Yeah, me either.
Still, time is wasted as you switch between different materials and the single material fly is a cinch to tie.
Enter the Sweet Ernie. Found in the e-pages (i-pages if you are reading this on a mac) of Fly Fishing in Saltwaters, the Sweet Earnie is hook, eyes, thread and single material.
This is Fly Daily recently put up a bonefish pattern by Dan Delekta. If you can tie a Gotcha (and, really, who CAN’T?), then you can tie up this pattern.
Turns out I’ve been to their fly shop, the Beartooth, just off the Madison. If you’ve headed from Ennis to West Yellowstone or $3 Bridge, you’ve passed it too.
Brought some new gotcha’s into the world tonight, birthed them from my vice. I continue to amaze myself with my inability to stay focused on tying the same pattern more than once. I started tying some gotcha’s with two-tone bodies… Bonefish Tan/Pearl.
Here’s the thing… I don’t know if there is some reason I shouldn’t do this or if this is a good idea. I don’t have the salt context to evaluate this little tweak. Moreover, I don’t know what situation would prompt me to use these flies as opposed, to, say, a regular tan gotcha. Some day… some day I’ll be able to call upon some on-the-flats experience, some bit of genuine lived-through memory that will inform my choices at the vice. Until then… I’ll tinker.
Some #4 two-tone gotchas
At this rate, I should have about 200 or so flies with me when I finally get back to standing calf deep on a Bahamian flat. I imagine I’ll be paralyzed by indecision. We’ll find out.
Having filled my flats fly box to capacity with Gotcha’s, I have started looking into other flies I should be bringing along. I read an article by Craig Matthews (the article was on www.flyfisherman.com, but is only available on the cached view from Google) where he was talking about the stomach contents of those unfortunate bonefish that, while on the line of an angler, become half landed fish and half ‘cuda or shark snack. Turns out those fish mostly have their stomachs with them when reeled in and those stomachs, almost always, have crabs in them.
Davin recommended Merkins or Rag Crab patterns. I found a great tutorial for the Merkin from Quest Outdoors.
Merkin from Quest Outdoors
Now, that’s a good looking bug, er, crustacean.
Here’s a YouTube tutorial…
My fishing buddy Shane recommended a Merkin or Velcro Crab. Velcro? That sounded pretty interesting. Fly Anglers Online has a great tutorial on the Velcro Crab.
That’s a good looking crab!
I was looking around for tan velcro, but I see that this is actually tied with white velcro and colored. So, I’ll be heading back to Walmart tomorrow.
UPDATE: I went to Walmart and picked up 15′ of white velcro and a set of Caribbean Color (I’m not making that part up) Sharpies. Here is my first attempt… I think I’m going to enjoy this pattern… at least how it looks, we’ll see if the bonefish enjoy it as well.
UPDATE #2: This fly has the tendency to spin on the hook, but I’ve come up with a solution that seems to help. I simply tied one or two sets of the plastic eyes on the back of the hook before putting the Velcro on. Those T’ed the hook and made it pretty much impossible for the fly to spin. You could also use a short section of cut wire (think paper clip) (That was a dumb idea… would rust quickly… don’t do that). Superglue added just before you close the Velcro sandwich also seems to help a lot. I’ve also switched the colors of the crabs to more of a gray. After looking at some pictures of swimming crabs (in Dick Brown’s bonefishing book), it is seems they really aren’t brown.
UPDATE #3: I threw a couple of these into water and found two things… 1. they didn’t sink well unless totally soaked, and 2. it was 50/50 for them landing correctly (point up). I talked with Shane about this and he, of course, had the solution… trim the fuzzy velcro on the bottom of the fly. The fuzz catches air and makes it not sink well, but if you trim that on the bottom… well… it will land correctly. He also crushes lead barbell eyes and puts them in the pattern… have not done that yet, but that would work too.
UPDATE #4: I’ve taken to putting some UV Knot Sense (or the Rio product, which is pretty much the same thing) on all the bits and pieces (legs, eyes, pincers) and putting the UV lamp on it before superglueing it closed. This seems to be increasing the durability of the fly.
My first Velcro Crab.
While searching the tubes of the internets for crab flies I ran into this…
It’s crab… tied with… crab.
That has to be the crabbiest looking fly I’ve ever seen. The main reason for that would be that it is tied with… crab. Some really good looking crabs (including the crab crab) on StripersOnline here.
I’ll be tying up some crabs in the weeks to come. I hope the cast of The Deadliest Catch doesn’t knock the door down.
Message boards can be fantastic communities of folks that share your passions, or elitist groups of anonymous trollers, depending on your experience. On a message board I frequent I saw a post that was simply fantastic. I had recently played with an alternative to epoxy for Bonefish Bitters, sothis post, all about epoxy alternatives, was just wonderful.
Epoxy Alternative Options
Someone really put some time into this post. The effort shows and there is some real solid information for fly-tiers here.
I used the Rio product and was happy with it. It didn’t dry quickly, but it did cure eventually. There was a slight tacky feeling to it once cured, so I’d recommend putting some Hard as Nails or other head cement over it when done.
One of my favorite blogs on the saltwater side of things is Flatswalker.com and the guy who writes that blog also happens to be a guide in the Cayman Islands. Fish Bones is the guide service on their web site I found a good link on a topic I was just thinking about… namely hooks and knots.
I’ve straightened a few trout flies on fish. I’ve broken a few as well. I haven’t done enough saltwater fishing to run into this sort of scenario, so I have to rely on the knowledge of the folks that have. Davin/Windknot seems just that sort.
It seems if there are two patterns you hear about the most it would be the Gotcha and the Crazy Charlie. In appearance these two flies bear a striking resemblance. There are some differences and they have their own histories… kind of like fire being invented at many places around the same time in history, these flies both came into being.
The interesting thing to me about this is that what is listed as a Crazy Charlie varies so dramatically. The Crazy above shows saddle hackle in the wing, but you also see this with what looks like craft fur or calf tail.
The tie on both these flies is different… one ties the wing in above the eyes, one below. The placement of the eye is therefore different.
This is also a Crazy Charlie… go figure.
Heck… Wikipedia has this as a Crazy Charlie… flashabou as the wing.
I guess this fly is kind of like flyfishing… it means different things to different people.
Another variation… according to wikipedia.
The Flats Fishing Flies blog posted a story about the Crazy Charlie today as well… here’s the link.
I thought it might be interesting to comb through the different outfitters/lodges/guides to see who recommends what when it comes to flies one should have in your box when fishing a particular destination. To keep as much to an apples/apples comparison as possible I am looking only at Grand Bahama.
On GBI, one of the venerable players is the North Riding Point Club. I’m sure lots of folks book them, and they probably book direct too, but for this particular exercise I looked at the listing by The Fly Shop, my one time local shop (I moved). They seem to be fans of the “everything” philosophy… here is what they say you should have…
Grand Bahama Bonefishing, and outfit I don’t know (but then, I wouldn’t, anyway). is more minimalistic… basically they say #4-6, Gotchas, Crazy Charlies, Clousers, Puffs, Horrors.
Hmmm… maybe I DON’T need to get tying.
The Blog for Deep Water Cay just gives an idea of what the top flies were… lots of #2’s in there… Gotcha’s, Mantis Shrimp, Bonefish Scampi. The blog was last updated in 2008, so don’t go and bookmark it just yet.
Flyfish Travelbooks Pelican Bay on GBI and they go with “everything” philosophy as well… here is what they say you should stock you box(es) with:
Bonefish Flies: We recommend at least six dozen bonefish flies for the week in varying weights and sizes.
* #2-4 Clouser Minnows in Gotcha, Gold Shiner, Silver Shiner
* #2-6 Gotcha, Gold Gotcha
* #4-6 Krystal Charlie’s in Gold and White
* #4-6 Horrors* #4-6 Tan Yarn Crabs
* #4-6 Tan or Golden Mantis Shrimp
* #4 Orange Christmas Island Special
* #4-6 Tan/Orange Bonefish Puffs
* #4-6 Crazy Charlies in Tan/Gold, Tan/Pearl and Gold
* #6 Moose Turd
* #4 Borski’s Super Swimming Shrimp
* #2-4 Rabbit strip bonefish flies in brown, tan, white and pin
So, what’s a guy to do? It seems the basic take away is #4-6 with a few #2’s. Colors muted, with a couple bright ones. Six dozen flies does seem a tad overdoing it (or massively overdoing it unless you hire a fly caddy).
The one item lightly touched on was weight (see the pun there? Yeah… I’m pretty punny). From barbell to mono is the range and folks in the know say that often weight is the key issue.
I think I’m pretty much on the minimalist side of fly selection, so we’ll see if that works for me. In trout fishing if they won’t eat a PT, Poopah, zebra midge or ugly bug, I’m not going to waste my time on them and I’ll just move 15 feet and cast to the fish that will. Of course, bonefishing might be a little bit more complicated… just a wee, tiny bit.
I’m not a wizard at the vice. Mostly, I tie simple nymphs (like the Eng Theng) designed to fool trout and I find that trout are pretty easily fooled when it comes to nymphs (I’m in that “presentation-is-king” school of thought). To satisfy my bonefish fixation I’ve taken to tying bonefish patterns. When it comes to bonefish patterns the king (as far as I know) is the Gotcha. The Gotcha is just a really easy fly to tie and it’s pretty easy to vary an element or two to make it your own. I tie a lot of Gotchas. Really, I tie way more than I could really use in the next decade of fishing. Still… I keep tying them.
Pink Gotcha with some white fox tail
Turns out the Gotcha is McVay’s Gotcha and it has a pretty quirky birth… cab carpet fibers.
