what color legs?

[tight-lines]

I want to tie up some bonefish bitters and turneffe crabs for my upcoming trip to belize but am a little confused about what color legs I should use. Is there a wiggle leg color that works well or am i better off using white and taking some colored pens? Also does hot glue work for the head?

[juro]

The answer is "yes"

I use the legs to wrap under the epoxy so the answer there is the same color as the body wrap (it is the body wrap) BUT you could use a thread body and different legs, up to you. Coloring with a marker adds nice mottled appearance too.

Stepping back from the leg detail for a minute, you generally want to come close to the bottom color for daytime fishing and present a noticeable silouette against the bottom for off light hours. I like to use the speckles and highlights on flies that look very close to the bottom color just to let them know it's food. Tan is a must, also the chalky whites, light olives, etc.

I would not get too carried away with the leg colors, just look at critters on the flat and copy their colors. So many factors besides the fly are in play on the tropical flats. There are a dozen flies that a fish will take and any given shot, but only one shot that will work.

If they aren't reacting try a larger pattern that they might not have seen from other anglers - you'll be surprised how big of a fly they can suck down with those small mouths.

[BigDave]

Bitters: If you are going to Turneffe you will want the amber colored legs on an amber body or olive colored legs on an olive body. You can do the glue heads or just buy the Tears of Keys blanks which will save you a lot of time.

We used ragheads and small merkins rather than Turneffe Crabs and they worked well.

FYI-for turneffe you will want 90% of your flies to be weedless. Especially on the coral flats. Be prepared to lose a lot of fish to the rocks.