On the flats? Good thought. Gosh I'd like to try. I haven't been down to the Bahamas in over 5 years now.
I tried fishing with long-large flies in Honolulu Bay two years back, and on the flat next to the Marine base on the other side of Oahu. I caught 3 fish over 8lbs in two days (fishing with Mike Hennesy). But not on the big flies for some reason. Those were the biggest bonefish I ever caught. But all still wanted shrimp-like flies tied on #4 stainless hooks. If I was going to use these over shallow water bonefish I'd make them barely heavy enough to sink (12" to the bottom?) and smaller than I would for brown trout. (Some) bonefish guides will suggest fishing big Mr Twister tails on gale-force days, when it's impossible to cast a fly rod. In those situations they'll motor out to deeper water and cruise around searching for a mud. Then they'll toss big'ol lures into the sand cloud. That does work (I've been told). But in clear shallow water on calmer days, smaller and shrimpy still seems to work best. What's your thought?
How'd that song go? .....Good golly miss molly. Sure like da flats.
=========== epilog =============
Extra-thin sheets of soft-gooey sheet material made in light tan brown, with a sprinkling of dark brown chips added onto the surface of the wet resin just prior to cooking, makes an incredibly realistic "back" for golden stonefly nymphs. If you make the stonefly body out of light yellow dubbing or open-cell mattress foam, the darker sheet material back makes a nicely two-tone nymph. Much like the natural.
In his copyright 1960 classic--Fishing the Nymph--Jim Quick rails against molded plastic flies. He claims they don't work:
"The plastic replicas of nymphs, either formed in
a mold or woven are in this class. To our eyes, they are perfection
itself, but from a consensus of trout results reports, at this
writing, the desirable keepers look upon this lure, under most
conditions, as if it were tinged with arsenic. The reader may get the
impression that the author, in asking that the fly fisherman or fly
tier observe and study the natural nymph, is a bit off his rocker when
he states that perfect lures are not too effective. It is true, and
why it is that way nobody knows."
But there were no molded realistic flies in those days. The fly bins at Abercrombie and Fitch in downtown Manhattan were as complete as any in those days. There were a few oddball molded minnows and insect-like creatures back then--latex molded onto a hook with opaquely-dark and over-saturated colors. But those early molded bugs weren't realistic at all and imitated nothing real. I remember those flies. They were more like Walt Disney cartoon caricatures of imaginary aquatic creatures than anything real.
The flies I've been making recently, for going on 5 or 6 years now, are not molded. But I do make them with molding materials. My worm resin Golden Stonefly nymphs and the Jolly Roger minnows are among the most productive flies I've ever fished with.
Reply With Quote