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Suggestion for flies for bones in January

2K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  BTU 
#1 ·
anyone any suggestion for flies to use in January for bones and other species ?
My expirience is limited. Only tarpon in Curacao. :D
Anyone any idea what species we can expect during that time of year? Doesn't matter whether it be surf or flat.

Thanks for suggestions !
 
#5 ·
Pretty much can get by with a few patterns, but in different designs. For instance a fly that looks shrimpy and lands with a soft touch will work for tailers. A fly that has bead eyes to get it down to business in fast moving water will help for running fish in tide currents.

Have shrimpy / small goby-like baitfish patterns first (e.g. tan gotcha), then crabs and other stuff. Have weighted and unweighted; light and dark; small and smaller. I prefer bunny and other breathing materials in neutral colors with appropriate highlight colors, speckled tones etc.

The rest is up to you, your eyes, cast, retrieve and even the way you present yourself in the water (shuffling feet, standing tall in sun, shadow direction, extra false casting, line management, hook setting, drag management, etc).

Bones will hit about any half-decent fly when in a frenzy and reject your best when not willing. In fact the very same bone will. What does that tell us? The fly is not the most important ingredient to bonefishing success.

Good luck!
 
#7 ·
thanks for the advice !!

A bit late I know but anyway ...thanks for the advice.
We fished in the Xcalak area. Lost some time on looking around for a decent sport to do some DIY bonefishing. In the end we found some nice spots. Required a lot of hiking through bush and mud. The bones were not veru big but what they lacked in size they made up in numbers. They could be hard to catch at times, refusing almost everything. Later we found out that when the water started to get out of the flats area the fish became nervous and was not interested in any fly. They were only looking how to get out of the flats as soon as poosible. We looked for deeper water ( almost 3-5 ft ) and caught bones , snapper cuda and other species by blind casting.
Guides are knowledgeable but I think they go over spots to quick. Stay longer in one area and you will see and catch more fish. They are not very expensive and there knowledge of english is sufficient. The outside flats north of Xcalak are a nice spot too. We had lots of fun with all kind of species , inluding bones.
Tarpon in Januari is hard to find. They are there in numbers we were told by divers who dived at the reef. Since you're not allowed to fish the reef ( at least that's what the guide told us ) you will have to see if any tarpon comes in close enough to catach wading from the beach. We did not try. Fished a lagoon with our guide and had tarpon almost 1 in every three casts. These were fish of then to fifteen inches. Fished a 9 weight as suggested by the guide. A #5 would have been more appropriate. I would leave that place alone. Hotel , food etc etc was great. The drive all the way down was an adventure :D .... driving in the dark with a lot of potholes in the road .....

thanks again and regards .
Otto
 
#8 ·
Thanks for the report Otto.
The nervous bones wanting to leave the flat was probably due to a falling tide. They are normally happier on an incoming tide.
Shame about the tarpon but I would have thought that you would find baby tarpon up to about 30lbs and snook in the mangroves.

Better luck next time.

Pete
 
#10 ·
"10-15 inch tarpon ??? I would expect fish that young/small to still be back "behind" the mangroves in water with a low tidal turnover (low
oxygen) and inhospitable to to predators."
At approx 15" or so they should be about 1yr old, and drop out of the backwater swamps about then. If a protected backwater, can certainly see slightly smaller fish there, too.
Aaron
 
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