Lifelike fly materials

[Vic T]

Hi Dick,

In your book you mention "liveliness" in fly action being a desirable quality; my own limited bonefishing experience has confirmed that materials with natural movement out-perform static materials. I have had such excellent luck with Henry Cowen's Bonefish Scampi (rabbit fur wing & polar fiber veil over a Gotcha body), that it is now my go-to fly. Are we evolving into using these breathable, lifelike materials patterns instead older, more static patterns? Flies by Tim Borski, Jeffrey Cardenas and others use more active materials and seem to be quite successful. The Gotcha with sili-legs outperforms traditional Gotchas according to some Bahamian guides. I does seem that bf are more easily fooled by "pulsating materials, the interplay of light, pattern, and moving parts" as you say in your book.

As I look through the numerous flies I have tied for the Bahamas, they are almost all tied with breathable, lively materials. I am tying Clousers with arctic fox wings and sili-legs for more action, and using arctic fox or polar fiber wings when I tie Squimp patterns. There are few Crazy Charlies in my fly boxes because they seem to lifeless to me (though they have obviously caught thousands of bonefish). My boxes are loaded with flies with sili-legs, rabbit fur, fox fur, polar fiber, etc. The Bahamas and Florida are my only destinations for bonefish. Can you tell me more about this subject and is bonefishing moving away from the older more static patterns? Thank you.

[Marshrunner]

Vic,

Very observant. As I've watched bf prey react to the fish hunting them over the last couple decades, I've noticed how often many of them (shrimp, mantis, and crabs) either simply freeze immediately for cover or make one diving jump away from the fish, and then freeze, relying on their camouflaged exterior to prevent detection. Many also burrow (and do so incredibly fast) leaving a small puff of mud, which I also believe is a bf feeding trigger that bf dive onto and use their excavating abiity to "blow" them out of their burrow.

The interesting thing about prey that freezes is that often some part of the creature--antennae, swimming legs, tail--will not totally stop but instead make tiny repetitive twitches in the moving tidal water column. I think this too is a trigger and is what offers great promise in using fly materials that self animate. By this I mean they move even when you are not stripping the fly.

For this reason, like you, I have added/substituted materials like marabou, rabbit fur, and craft fur (which is one of the finest-fibered synthetics) to my flies. By the way, you may find some of those old Charlie patterns when revived with a craft fur wing, will produce better than the traditional stiff calf tail wings. Rubber legs as you mention are also good and even finer are the small spandex legs used in flies like the Mathews Pops Bitters flies.

Dick