 |
| THE BOX! |
As I said in my last post, I've been organizing my bonefish flies. I came across one box that deserves special mention. This is my "unique" pattern box. Most of these patterns were sent to me by clients, a few I tied myself… all are flies I considered so cool and unusual, I thought they should be saved for posterity. So I put them in this blue box. I haven't opened it for years. But when I saw it while organizing my flies, I immediately remembered its contents. It's really an ode to the creativity of fly tiers. Why?
Well, if you tie you can relate to this:
So you sit down to tie. You have the fly pattern clearly detailed in front of you. You have all the materials and you've studied the sequence. You know the fly works. After all, it's a classic and it catches fish. This fly has worked for thousands of other anglers. This fly has fooled tens of thousands of fish. All you have to do is FOLLOW THE RECIPE! Easy eh?
Let's say you're tying a gotcha. If you are a bonefisherman, you've probably caught lots of fish with it. So you get to work. You tie a dozen perfect flies by diligently repeating the cycle of mylar tubing tail, body braid abdomen, craft fur beard and a pink floss nose… Then on your next fly, you add just a touch of marabou to the tail. It's still a gotcha, but you think it might now be just a bit better. Then on the next fly you add silly-legs and substitute bunny fur for craft fur.
Then on your next try, the flood gates open and you go into full-bore into no man's land. Eventually, your fly bears no resemblance to a gotcha at all, but you know this new creation is a tour de force and will soon be a classic.
After awhile, you settle on the details of your new pattern and think to yourself, "Damn this looks good… now I need a name for it." You think, "bonehead, Bahama Mama, bone meal"… eventually your delusions of grandeur go wild and you fit your name in there somewhere… now you're having fun!!
Do you ever do this? Do you have a hard time sticking with the pattern? (C'mon, we tiers all know the answer to this and it's not no.)
If you've ever wandered off the beaten path creating new patterns as you go, I offer, in the spirit of innovation, the contents of the blue box. As I said, it contains truly creative one-of-a-kind bonefish patterns, I've been collecting for over 30 years. Every time I open it to have a look, I get inspired.
So if you are a creative bonefish fly tier, please enjoy these few examples of the "box". I hope they stimulate your creative juices and please send me an example of results of your labors!
Here we go:
 |
| Beautiful, the lead eyes will pop the mono eyes into the perfect position. |
 |
| Love the translucent look the E-Z Body gives to flies. |
 |
| Very shrimpy! Carapace is a soda straw wrapped in copper wire. |
 |
| Quick tie crab. |
 |
| Silli-legs and bunny gone wild! |
 |
| Eyes are gold beads over burnt mono with sheep fleece mouthparts and ice dubbed body. |
 |
| Same fly in orange. Carapace is scud back segmented with mono. This is a lethal pattern! |
 |
| Beautiful, but a lot of work! |
 |
Tiny, effective E-Z Body crab. Hackle tips for claws, rubber bands for legs.
 |
Another view of the micro crab.
|
|
 |
| Split calf tail nose/claws makes for a quiet entry. |
 |
| Bonefish love grizzly! This fly is packed with it. |
 |
| Grizzly over crystal chenille. |
 |
| Another beautiful E-Z Body pattern. |
 |
| And another... |
 |
| A gold wobbler. Jon Cave pattern I think. |
 |
| An elegant shrimp pattern. |
 |
| Another split calf tail pattern. |
 |
| More E-Z Body. |
 |
| Notice the extended body. |