Almost all of the bonefish I caught on the trip came from a singular fly. I caught a few bones on the fly before we embarked on our beach excursion so I tied one more to take a long. It ended up being used for 7 consecutive days. Here it is.
The fly is a cross between a kwabbit and a crab imitation. The chenille body is tied in the same fashion as a merkin. That body style combined with bead chain eyes allows for a very soft presentation in super skinny water. It also allows for a slower descent and for the hook point to always ride up as seen in the picture above.
The material list is seen above. We have tan chenille, tan polar fibre, tan magnum rabbit strips, bead chain eyes, tan thread, gamakatsu sc15 size 6-8, and some UV knot sense.
You can choose a variety of rubber legs. I opted for a pearl colored version that I combined with a pink speckled bass skirt. The lighter is used to taper and harden the tips of the chenille.
The hook I used was a Gamakatsu SC15 in sizes 6-8. In those sizes it is a very thin wire hook that landed bonefish in the 8-12 lb. range. To avoid straightening the hook on a large bone, I rarely strip set fish. I stripped tight and let the bonefish set the hook on their initial run. The small diameter of the hook combined with a super sharp point got the job done, even after a dozen bones.
Start by attaching the bead chain eyes with figure eight wraps followed by some super glue. Take the thread to the bend of the hook.
You'll need to cut a nice chunk of polar fibre for the tail keeping a wide base while pulling/tapering the fibre to the desired length. Tie the excess along the shaft.
Cut two equal pieces of chenille for the crab styled body.
Cut them into 5 equal pairs.
Tie each pair onto the hook using a figure eight pattern. After one completion, push the two pieces of chenille into the desired position before tightening your wraps ensuring their position on the shaft.
Repeat that step until all five clumps of chenille are in position.
Trim to desired length & use the lighter to harden the tips. Be careful not to burn the chenille. If you do, and blow it out in time, you will have black tips on some of the pieces as seen below. It still works.
Tie in four rubber legs (two varieties). They should be the length of the fly with two on either side of the hook point. Use figure eight wraps to get behind the rubber legs to prevent them from shifting.
Cut a good chunk of rabbit off of the magnum zonker strip and tie in above the rubber legs. To make it easier, I usually wet the material.
The final step requires you to epoxy the head of the fly.
Finished fly.
The fly allows for a lot of creativity. You can mix and match colors and rubber legs. You can also substitute a variety of materials. Either way, it works, and works well.
5 comments:
Nice fly. Your pictures are always great. What kind of camera do you use?
Looks like good carp bait. Thanks for the instructions, I'm going to shamelessly copy that and see what happens.
it would definitely work on carp
@Kev
For these photos I use a Panasonic Lumix, most of the others I am using a Pentax-Kx
from below it looks like a conch fritter.
nice looking bug. from below it looks like a conch fritter.
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