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 Dick ties a small number of custom flies for anglers, which are available in limited collections. Contact him at dick@dickbrownbonefishing.com or call 978 314 6879 to ask about pattern availability. All custom flies are personally tied by Dick—and true to the original recipe. Order a few today if you are heading to the flats and want to arm yourself with the best authentic flies available. 

Dick posts fly profiles and recipes here from time to time in the same format used in the new second addition of Bonefish Fly Patterns, 2nd Edition: Tying, Selecting, and Fishing all the Best Bonefish Flies from Today's Best Tiers. These are a few of his favorites. The book contains 197 of them.

Strip Tease
Dick Brown design. Sample in photo was tied by Dick on a size 6 Gamakatsu SL11-3H hook and measures horizontally 3 3/16″ in overall length. Weighted reverse-wing fly rides hook-point up.
Hook: Gamakatsu SL11-3H or Mustad 34007; sizes 4, 6
Thread: Orange Flat Waxed Nylon or Monocord 3/0
Weight: 3/32″ or 1/8″ bead chain or lead barbell, sized to achieve desired sink rate
Eyes: Two stalks burnt 15 lb. or 20 lb. mono
Egg sack/underbody: Orange Aunt Lydia’s sparkle yarn Mouthparts: Natural tan rabbit hair pulled from hide
Claws: Pair of silicone or rubber legs
Antenna: Two strands black Krystal Flash
Body: Dub body with blended tan and pink Enrico Puglisi’s Shrimp Dub; palmer in a waxed dubbing loop and pick out so orange underbody “shines” through.
Wing/carapace: Craft fur, then six to eight strands pearl or lime Krystal Flash
Head/finish: Oversize orange thread, superglue, head cement
Tying notes: Tie in mouthparts, claws, and antennae extra long so they self-animate and wiggle even when the fly stops. Can vary dubbing color choice among pink, tan, and olive to approximate local shrimp varieties. Wapsi’s SLF Saltwater Dub and Senyo’s Laser Dub from Hareline are also very good mixes with good colors.
Location notes: The Bahamas, Los Roques, the Seychelles, the Yucatan, Christmas Island
Fishing notes: Bump-strip, stop, let it wiggle, watch, and strip-strike.
Prey notes: Suggestive of most shrimp forms; choose size and color based on local observation.
Anecdotes: I have been working for a long time on a design that would wiggle enticingly to tease fish into striking, both when stopped and stripped. Once the pattern started to work, the name was kind of a no-brainer.

Ghost
A Victor Trodella design. Sample in photo was tied by Victor on a size 6 Gamakatsu SL11-3H hook and measures horizontally 1 5/8″ in overall length. Unweighted fly rides hook-point down.

Hook: Gamakatsu SL11-3H; size 6
Thread: Clear monofilament thread, fine
Tail: Tan rabbit fur fibers plucked from hide, tied in with two strands pink shrimp Krystal Flash Eyes: Small Spirit River black mono eyes or burned mono eyes made from 20 lb. to 30 lb. mono
Body: Enrico Puglisi’s Shrimp Dub (blend of tan and pink) applied as dubbing (in a mono dubbing loop) and then picked out with a bodkin or Velcro-strip brush to look fuzzy and trimmed to shape. Author’s Note: EP Shrimp Dub has become very hard to find. Victor suggests substituting the EP Shrimp Dub Brush if you can’t find the Shrimp Dub product, which is the same dubbing pre-strung. He also likes the Wapsi SLF Saltware and Sow Scud dubbing products as possible substitutes.
Tying notes: Victor applies the dubbing by doubling over the mono thread into a mono dupping loop, waxing it and attaching the dubbing, and twirling it into a dubbed “rope” prior to winding the “rope” onto the shank. Then he picks out he dubbing and trims off any wild-looking fibers. For a productive color alternative for fishing over grassy flats, use barred dyed tan and olive rabbit fur tail, with a blend of Puglisi’s Shrimp Dub in light olive and tan. The weight of the Gamakatsu SL11-3H alone allows this fly to hover in skinny water with almost neutral buoyancy, so avoid adding weight to this pattern.
Location notes: This fly has been extremely effective in skinny water and has worked well in shallow flats at all locations, including Bahamas, Los Roques, Yucatan, and Belize.
Fishing notes: Fish this fly in water up to 18 inches deep and retrieve it slowly with very short strips to keep it hovering in the water column just ahead of the fish. It looks like escaping prey, and the fish get quite excited by the motion of the materials and very slow looping drops during the retrieve. Author’s note: I have fished this fly now for five years and it is a killer pattern for tailing and cruising fish in thin water. It is my go-to fly for spooky fish in skinny water.
Prey notes: The Ghost is meant to be a general attractor pattern. The way bonefish hit it consistently in so many different locations suggests that it imitates several different prey. Author’s note: Suggests members of the common shrimp (Penaeidae), snapping shrimp (Alpheidae), and mantis shrimp (Squillidae) families.

Reverend Laing
A Jaime Boyle/Dave Skok collaboration. Sample in photo was tied by Dave Skok on a size 4 Tiemco 811S hook and measures horizontally 2 3/8″ in overall length. Weighted fly rides hook-point up.
Hook: Mustad 34007 or Tiemco 811S; size 2 or smaller
Thread: Pink Monocord or Danville Flat Waxed Nylon 3/0
Eyes: Large gold bead chain or 5/32″ Real Eyes (barbell eyes with a recessed cup at each end) with black-on-silver decal eye pupils
Tail: Pearl Midge Flash (or pearl Krystal Flash), tied long and relatively heavy
Body: Wound pearl Midge Flash (or pearl Bill’s Body Braid or other flat braid)
Wing: Natural Kinky Fibre, then several strands of root beer Midge Flash or Krystal Flash, all tied long
Tying notes: Winding a strand of orange Krystal Flash onto the nose of the fly to create a small highlight has proven effective at times. Author’s note: Jaime’s original version of this Gotcha-variant fly used pink thread, Krystal Flash for the tail and wing, and Bill’s Body Braid for the body. The Dave Skok variant, shown in the photo, uses Midge Flash instead of Krystal Flash and Body Braid andthis version has been especially effective for me on both tailing and cruising fish on sand flats. Location notes: The Bahamas, the Yucatan, Los Roques, Christmas, Island, the Seychelles.
Fishing notes: Cast to tailers, strip, and twitch.
Prey notes: Small shrimp prey form.
Captain Jaime Boyle guides anglers on the waters of Martha’s Vineyard and has over a dozen fly rod first-place trophies in the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby on his and his clients’ walls. Jaime won the Fly Rod Grand Slam division three times and guided angler Mark Budreski to the same award in the fifty-fifth derby, and he holds the derby fly rod record with a 16.38-pound albie. He is the creator of several innovative flies, including the Vineyard Squid, Bonito Bunny, and Red Can Squid. Dave Skok is a Boston-based fly tier, photographer, and writer and a two-time winner of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby. He has held the IGFA 6 lb. tippet record for Atlantic bonito since 1994. Dave also created the Mushmouth and Mega Mushy fly series, two of the most effective striped bass patterns ever fished. His skill with rod, vise, pen, and camera has been featured in over a dozen books, including Bob Veverka’s Innovative Saltwater Flies and Rich Murphy’s Fly Fishing for Striped Bass, and numerous periodicals.

 

 

 

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