My sand flats fly box – tropical Pacific & temperate waters

{{+1}}My sand flats fly box – tropical Pacific & temperate waters{{-1}}

This is my suggested fly selection per species for a weeks fishing for tropical island target species on fly.

Quicklinks

Bonefish

Aitutaki secret

This is a popular rubber tailed Gotcha type fly designed by Christopher Hall, an Aitutaki regular for targeting big bonefish.

Christmas Island special

With just these seven colour each tied in two sizes and a couple of weights you will be ready for some fantastic bonefish sessions on the flats. Christmas Island Special in: Pink, Pearl, Orange – rich, Orange – light, Violet, Chartreuse & Yellow.

Christmas Island Special – chartreuse

In plenty of salt water fisheries the saying “if it’s not chartreuse it’s not any use” applies so it’s no surprise that this fly is included in my top six CXI flies list.

Christmas Island Special – pink

There are a lot of colour combinations of Christmas Island Special (CXI) flies that my mates and I have seen on our various trips to Christmas Island and Aitutaki. Some work sometimes and not others and some work more often than not.

This is my list of CXI flies that more often than not consistently work.

Rubber legged gotcha – orange & pearl

If your heading off on a fishing trip the gotcha fly in a few colour combinations and a couple of sizes should definitely be included in you fly box. I was looking at the Fulling Mills bonefish flies and one of them was predominately orange with a pearl body … this is my version of that combination. It doesn’t matter if it’s fresh or salt water orange is one of those trigger colours for fish.

Rubber legged olive gotcha

This is a popular rubber tailed Gotcha type fly which is very similar to other peoples ties. It has it’s place in your bonefish fly box for those occasions where the bones shy away from the bright colours of most other bone fish flies.

Trigger fish

One of my favorite tropical Pacific species.

Christmas Island Special – pink

This is my list of CXI flies that more often than not consistently work.

Tidal flats shrimp – orange and brown

This orange and brown size #2 hook version of my tidal flats shrimp is my first choice of fly when targeting feeding trigger fish. It stands out in the storm of mud and other debris that trigger fish stir up as they forage around for food.

Trevally

Chatto’s flats minnow

This is a fly that I developed specifically for sight fishing on the flats to the likes of bream, flathead, bonefish and permit. It’s a very fishy looking fly and has a little blood spot that adds to the appearance of the fly being a wounded fish.