Bob,
I don't have much to offer here, as I have never been bonefishing. A friend of mine goes about twice a year and uses gotchas for the bulk of his fishing. In fact he used one fly for a 5 day trip last year - it was ragged by the end, but still was enticing them. He used to use a crab pattern constructed with bead chain and root beer colored estaz, that he was taught at the Marlboro show about 4-5yrs ago. He stopped using it as he felt it landed too hard and tended to startle the fish.
As most of these flies are just minor variations on a common theme you really can't go too wrong. I would suggest tying up some small clousers (sz 4 and 6) and you might want to check out the "bonecrusher" pattern offered by Orvis and supposedly created by Larry Dahlberg. I saw one of his segments over a year ago - and the fly consistently rode hook point up, something the traditional charlies and gotchas didn't quite do when they were filmed underwater. Again, this is secondhand info, so take it for what you will.
It certainly is nice to have your own tying area. Before my marriage I was renting a huge house with 3 other guys - one of them was an avid fly fisher. We each had a desk set up in the library that had the vises always attached. It really was great, becasue it was always ready to go, no unpacking everything from the many rubbermaid containers - in short, it was way more convenient and probably resulted in 3X as many flies being tied. Good luck. PS go to a home depot and pick up a halogen swingarm desk lamp. They are about 1/3 less than anywhere they carry them and provide plenty of good light for the bench.
Pete
I don't have much to offer here, as I have never been bonefishing. A friend of mine goes about twice a year and uses gotchas for the bulk of his fishing. In fact he used one fly for a 5 day trip last year - it was ragged by the end, but still was enticing them. He used to use a crab pattern constructed with bead chain and root beer colored estaz, that he was taught at the Marlboro show about 4-5yrs ago. He stopped using it as he felt it landed too hard and tended to startle the fish.
As most of these flies are just minor variations on a common theme you really can't go too wrong. I would suggest tying up some small clousers (sz 4 and 6) and you might want to check out the "bonecrusher" pattern offered by Orvis and supposedly created by Larry Dahlberg. I saw one of his segments over a year ago - and the fly consistently rode hook point up, something the traditional charlies and gotchas didn't quite do when they were filmed underwater. Again, this is secondhand info, so take it for what you will.
It certainly is nice to have your own tying area. Before my marriage I was renting a huge house with 3 other guys - one of them was an avid fly fisher. We each had a desk set up in the library that had the vises always attached. It really was great, becasue it was always ready to go, no unpacking everything from the many rubbermaid containers - in short, it was way more convenient and probably resulted in 3X as many flies being tied. Good luck. PS go to a home depot and pick up a halogen swingarm desk lamp. They are about 1/3 less than anywhere they carry them and provide plenty of good light for the bench.
Pete
