Allen May – noted anthropologist, former Baton Rouge resident and member of the Red Stick Fly Fishing Club, and current resident of Bozeman, Montana – recently called me from the sports bar in the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas (because, after all, where else would you expect a world-renowned anthropologist to be?). It was difficult to hear him over the background noise, and conversation abruptly halted on several occasions while he cursed the televisions around him (apparently his bets were not going well), but he eventually managed to communicate that he was heading on a week-long trip to Palmyra Atoll in the South Pacific to do some fly-fishing for Bonefish, Giant Trevally, and the elusive Milk Fish, and he wanted me to tie some flies for him. I agreed, on the condition that he send me some pics when he returned. Hopefully, I’ll have some action shots for the website in another few weeks.
Recent reports from Palmyra indicated the fly of choice for the Bones was a small Spawning Gotcha, which is a standard Gotcha with a splash of pink. The Gotcha is usually tied with a tail of braided mylar tubing (unraveled), but I did not have any pink braided tubing, so I used Krystal Flash instead. The body is pearl Diamond Braid wrapped around the hook shank. Charley Craven ties the Gotcha with Silli Legs, which I liked, so I included legs on my flies. You can always cut them off on the water if you want.
Given my vast expertise (none) bonefishing, I took the initiative to to tie up some Crazy Charlies as well. I tied the Charlies by twisting several strands of Flashabou together and then wrapping them forward up the hook shank, followed by an overwrap of clear V-Rib. The wing is calf tail, and tying the wing in securely is the only tricky part of the fly. I tied the Charlies in a tan color scheme and a pink color scheme. Both the Gotchas and the Charlies were tied using a TMC 800S in sizes #2 – #8.
For the Giant Trevally, I tied some Pearly Poppers and Sea Habit Bucktails. “Tied” is misleading when talking about the poppers – there’s no thread anywhere to be found. The Sea Habit Bucktail is an all-purpose Trey Combs pattern. Reports from Palmyra suggested that when the GT’s weren’t pounding poppers they were hitting baitfish imitations, so the SHB should fit the bill.
“The” fly for Milkfish is Arno’s Milky Dream – not exactly a household name. Milkfish look like a cross between a Ladyfish and a Bonefish – Jarid Malone says they look like a giant mullet. They are apparently finicky eaters, and catching one on the fly is supposed to be a real accomplishment. The only thing they eat is small chunks of algae, and Arno’s Milky Dream is not much more than a small chartreuse blob that is supposed to look like – you guessed it – a small chunk of algae (or a bugger). I was never entirely satisfied with my attempts to tie the AMD, so I ended up a tying some chartreuse Y2K’s on a #8 TMC 800. To my eye, they look as much like a small piece of algae as the AMD’s, but I guess we’ll have to wait till May returns to know whether the Y2K’s were effective.
Palmyra is located just north of the equator one thousand miles south of Hawaii and is a possession of the United States. The picture of Palmyra below is taken from The Nature Conservancy’s website. Makes you want to pop open a cold Corona. Hopefully, May will catch lots of fish and send us lots of pics, and in a few weeks we can post – as Paul Harvey used to say – the rest of the story.
[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://johnmurrill.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/About-me-pic.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]John Murrill, the author of this drivel, has never even seen a Bonefish, Giant Trevally, or Milkfish, much less fished for one. But that won’t stop him from passing himself off as an expert on the subject. Click here to see more photographs of his flies.[/author_info] [/author]