Posted on March 16 2012
Here’s another fly we think you should add to your box for South Andros Island – Quigley’s Bonefish Tickler by Idylwilde.
Why We Like It
- It works in a range of water depths. It’s on the smaller side for South Andros (#4), but its small lead eyes sink it quickly.
- It’s very sparsely dressed, which helps it enter the water without too much of a ‘plop’.
- It’s essentially built around rubber legs, and our fish love rubber legs.
- It’s relatively light colored but has quite a bit of contrast. We’ve used it with success on both lighter- and darker-colored bottoms.
Love/Hate Relationship
Another thing we love about this fly has to do with your fly selection during the course of a day of bonefishing. Something about its shape and color combination (maybe the orange legs?) gets a strong reaction, one way or the other.
We saw two responses to this fly on South Andros. 9 times out of 10, fish lit up as soon as they saw it, and raced to pounce on it like a kitten to a ball of string. 1 time out of 10, they blasted away at Mach 2 when it got anywhere near them.
In our fishery that’s actually great – blowing 1 shot out of 10 is not a big deal, because you’ll have plenty more. The aggressive positive reaction we got most of the time was really fun and really effective. And back to the fly selection topic – based on our experience you never need to ask yourself “hmmm, was that a refusal?” They’re probably going to love it, but if they happen to hate it on that particular flat, just change up and move on.