Fall and winter are great times to think about going somewhere the weather isn't totally lousy and fishing for cool species we don't get to experience around these parts. Bonefish are an incredible fly rod quarry. You're targeting sighted fish that often demand your farthest and most delicate presentation and get to watch the whole thing go down when the fish decides to eat. Bonefish are powerful and explosive, and being often hooked in very shallow water, have nowhere to go but out, a long ways out.
Being that the Confluence is hosting a Christmas Island trip in a few months and I'm tying a lot of these bugs lately, I thought we'd feature a pattern this month with sunny skies and tropical flats in mind. Bob Nauheim's Crazy Charlie is the prototype for scores of popular bonefish flies from the Gotcha to the Christmas Island Special. They're all mostly simple, shrimpy things, matching color to the local flats environment and imitating something that wants to crawl back into the sand before getting slurped up as some big bone's next meal.
All the new cool tying materials available these days bring new life to any tried and true pattern and it's always fun finding new and creative ways to put them in play. Hareline Dubbin's 2019 tying catalog rivals the Yellow Pages circa 1985 in terms of size and it's truly unbelievable how many new goodies there are to play with. One such material is the new Chiccone's Crusher Legs featured for the tail of the Rubber Legged Christmas Island Special. These things are sexy, and are well suited for everything from sculpin patterns to Squidro's. Pseudo Hair has been around for some time but comes in some great new colors too. It's much like Craft Fur, but far softer so it has great movement in the water. Tie a few of these flies up and start planning your next bonefish trip.
Rubber Legged Christmas Island Special Recipe:
Hook: #6 Daiichi 2546
Eyes: Small Gold Brass
Thread: White 140 Denier Ultra Thread/Fl. Fire Orange Ultra Thread
Tail: 3 Barred Orange/Clear Chiccone's Crusher Legs
Body: Hot Orange Crystal Flash
Wing: Tan Pseudo Hair and Hot Orange Krystal Flash
Body Coating: Solarez Bone Dry UV Resin
Confluence Beer Pairing:
Kulshan Brewery on James has a Fresh Hop Pilsner on tap currently that is out of this world. It's light and refreshing and goes down easy, just like you imagine your Rubber Legged Christmas Island Special ought to appeal to Mr. Bonefish. Fill up a growler and proceed to your fly tying cave.