Now that I have water and power (the electricity kind), I can finally move ahead with other elements of my life… like showering, Xmas shopping and fly tying for my Bahamas trip coming up in January (fly out the 13th, fly back the 18th).
Of course, my tying desk is made of the finest materials. I paid a guy $5,343 for this fine piece of craftsmanship. I was assured it was one of a kind.
The best money can buy.
Some day I’ll have a tying room, a roll top desk… something that invites me to tie flies, makes me comfortable, has little nooks for all my various bits of this and that. Until then I have to go out to the garage and carry this thing in and when I’m done I have to carry it back. My almost 3 year old doesn’t know this exists.
One thing that seems clear about my fly tying is that I am physically unable to tie more than one fly exactly the same. I’m swapping eyes, wing, body color… I don’t know why I do that. It doesn’t seem wise of me, but then, there is a real possibility I’m not wise (if my wife were to read this, she’d probably grin a little, knowing that she doesn’t need to actually point out what I’ve come to realize).
So, I tied some #2 Gotcha’s… light colored, each unique… like a snowflake… but a really, really sharp snowflake that could land a 10 pound bonefish.
A Gaggle of Gotchas (does that work?)
OK… Colbert is on, meaning bed time is fast approaching. The cries of “DADA!” always come earlier than is really convenient.
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.
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’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.
My friend and fishing buddy, Shane Kohlbeck, told me if I wanted to fill my box with flies other than Gotcha’s that I should tie up some Bonefish Bitters. I’d seen these flies before, but I’ve never tied with epoxy, so I was unsure about the Bitter as a pattern I should really pursue.
I found a nice write up on the Bitter, brought to popularity by Craig Matthews (who is just an outstanding/upstanding guy) owner of Blue Ribbon Flies (West Yellowstone) and co-founders of 1% for the Planet, along with Yvon Chouinard. Craig named the fly Pop’s Bonefish Bitter after a guide he knew and wanted to honor.
I found a tutorial on-line that is pretty good. The tier uses epoxy, where I used a UV knot product.
So… epoxy. I have a toddler in the house and the idea of epoxy doesn’t sit well. Not that I even tie when she’s awake, but I don’t like epoxy’s rep for toxicity. With that in mind, I tried hot glue. Sure, I’m a stay at home dad, so I have craft supplies and tried my hand with the hot glue gun. Horrible… I really, really suck at hot glue flies, as it turns out. UV Knot Sense was mentioned and I found a similar product by Rio and used that. One attempt at tying with the UV Knot stuff and I’m pretty much sold. Below is my first Pops Bonefish Bitter attempt in a #6.
After driving from Maine to Logan Airport (which my Garmin had never hear of before, for some reason), flying from Logan to SFO and then driving 2.5 hours East all with my 2.5 year old, I’m tired. Dead tired. Really, really, tired. So, how about some fly tying vids from good ole’ Youtube?!
I’ve been tying a bunch of Gotcha variations. They are just soooooooo easy. Seems that about 80% of bonefish patterns vary in materials/look/concept by about 2%. A Charlie is similar to a Gotcha with is similar to lots and lots of other flies. Just hope the fish don’t want crab patterns (which I have not started to learn just yet) or epoxy (my efforts to replace epoxy with hot glue or other substitutes have utterly failed not gone well).
You can hear this guy’s dog doing some heavy breathing, which may remind you of a few dozen dogs you’ve met in your life.
I can’t really make any bold or youthful statements about how hard I roll or how Xtreme I am. Right now, the wife is away in the city for work, as is our normal schedule these days. My daughter is asleep, after trying to stall that inevitability by asking for a fishing story… yeah, this girl has me wrapped around her finger.
The house is still. Dog is asleep. TV is off. Pandora is streaming a mix based on Metric and I’m at the vice. I can’t overstate how optimistic this act is. If anything, I should be tying up Eng Thengs or BHFB PT’s. I’m not, though. I’m tying up variations of Gotcha’s. If I get to use these flies at all, it won’t be until March or April. But here I am… tying (well, typing right now, but you know what I mean).
I have it bad… what can I say? I think it is because bonefishing is just so different from how I normally fish. I’m a river guy, a nymph guy… I cast all day, strike all day, reading the water is mundane because out of the 600 or 700 casts I make, only a few of those are going to yeild a fish… maybe 30-60 strikes in a day. Bonefishing though… the stalking, the hunting, the clear water of the flat, the mangroves and the rays. Man… I need it in my life. NEED.
So… on these bachelor nights, I may tip a Downtown Brown, Moose Drool or Newcastle here in the mountains, but my thoughts are thousands of miles away.
