Recipes: A Fly’s story

My name is Brett Reed and I’ve been a professional Sailor by trade for over 30 years and a fly fisherman even longer, both of which were introduced to me by my father.  My fly’s story has its roots in a family sail boat charter vacation in 1976 at Abaco Bahamas.  My love for this incredible marine environment began way back then and continues to this day. 

Like the sport of fly fishing, the Abacos have been in and out of my life due to my sailing occupation which takes me to many events around the world.  But back in early 2000 my sailboat racing boss purchased a 55’ sport fish boat and decided to try out sport fishing.  When he asked me where he should go, without hesitation I told him Abaco– and so our first Bahamas fishing trip for both of us was to Marsh Harbor.  We had an incredible trip, stopping in Walkers Cay on our approach from the north to Marsh Harbor.  I realized then that this was a whole new world to fly fish in.  After arriving late in the day into Walkers Cay, I pulled out my fly rod and walked the beach to see what I could find.  On the way back I walked along the sea wall of the channel mouth and saw 14’ Bull shark cruising in and out– and quickly realized this isn’t trout fishing and I’m not the only predator.   My boss had a great trip with a highlight of landing a 149 pound Wahoo – just shy of the Bahamian record catch.   For me it was an introduction to the incredible bonefishing in the Marls, and I’ve been back every spring since then.

On that first sport-fish trip with my boss, I arranged a trip with a guide and was lucky to end up with Danny Sawyer.  After fishing with Danny for several years I wanted to share the great experience with some friends.   To accomplish that, we needed another guide and Danny recommended local legend Buddy Pinder.  With our group trip we switched guides day to day and I realized that Buddy pushed me to a new level of competency and drive not unlike the competitive aspect of sailing that I strive for.  As they say, the rest is history — I’ve been fishing with him ever since.

Fast forward 7 years … after fishing with Buddy and, despite his harassment, we had become good friends.  He invited me to come on his Bus-man’s holiday, the Red Bone fishing tournament at Woodland Plantation, LA.  My wife and I competed together that first year and had some success– with her being top female angler and I won the fly division.  But the best part was spending time with Buddy and his fishing-fanatic wife Cindy, in a different setting with all his friends from fishing.   Half the entrants in the tournament were Buddy’s customers, who come from all walks of life, to spend some quality time with their favorite guide and friend.  

The following year my wife could not make the Red Bone tournament so I decided to reconnect with an old college friend, Bill Watkins, who I had fished with and took some fly tying classes and rod building classes with way back when.  Bill was a little reluctant to take on the challenge.  He is a survivor of spine cancer and standing that long in a flats boat would be a major challenge.  But for an extra incentive he suggested that we could do a cast and blast trip.  He is an avid duck hunter and it is one thing that even with his disability, works quite well for him.   

The trip was set and a great time was had by all.  We all especially enjoyed sharing dinner time stories and libation with Buddy, Cindy and friends.  Billy fit in with the gang like an old T3 8 wt. and was soon good ole friends with everyone, just as he is to me.   After the fishing tournament Billy and I had a couple great days duck hunting.  Back from the bayous to the Plantation we cleaned the ducks that would be prepared by the Plantation chef that final night, swapping the day’s hunting stories for tails of fishing.  It was an added treat for everyone to have duck appetizers while reliving the day’s adventures.  

On departing I told Buddy that I’d make some flies from the ducks for our next bone fish trip.  I know this was not welcome news for Buddy because I’m always changing flies on him, trying some new invention of mine.  This drives him nuts, “why would you change a fly that’s working,” he asks and I just have to tell him, “Well yea, we know that one works, now let’s try this one.”

Upon returning from the Louisiana trip I salted my duck hides and stuck them on the shelf to cure for future use.  A few weeks before my Abaco trip, I pulled the feather hides out, creating Buddy’s-next- headache flies.  I don’t pin my skins to a board to flatten as most would, so some of the Teal breast feathers really curled up during the drying out process.  This created quite an exaggerated curl to the feather and the Teal breast feathers were a nice light white and tan tip, and a section of them had a black dot on the center of the feather.   I came up with the idea to mount the feathers opposing each other at the back of the fly giving it a crab claw look and the dot on each feather gave the effect of eyes.  I’ve tied flies with black beads on the end of monofilament for eyes and found it to be more of a hindrance to hook set than they are worth.  The Teal feather achieves the bead eye effect without the hookset disadvantage (and a lot less work).  I made up several variations with the colors that I know work in the Marls and was ready for testing.

My first bonefishing trip with my new creation was extraordinary to say the least.  I book 5 days guided fishing with Buddy and usually get 3 good days weather-wise, with a couple of days washed out.  On this trip I got all five days filled with fishable weather.  I broke out my new fly for Buddy’s perusal and he gave me his usual unenthusiastic “OK.”   After several hook ups, and aggressive takes, Buddy was warming up to my new creation. 

We had several great days in the Marls with one culminating in a ten-pound Mutton Snapper.  After Buddy groused about my less-than-average cast and presentation to the Mutton Snapper and comment “that stupid fish must be really hungry,” I knew I had a pretty good fly.

The final day of that trip fishing with Buddy was one that I will never forget.   It was forecast to be a perfectly sunny, windless day, so we decided to go to the east side of Abaco, north of Treasure Key.  The morning started out with a rare site.  Shortly after launching in a back bay we started fishing immediately and got into bonefish.  But what was extraordinary, along with the bonefish there were schools of sea turtles, group upon group.  It was an incredible scene, but just like Shad, when you cast they all spook and away go the bonefish. 

We worked our way out of that bay and fired up the engine for the trip across to the barrier islands and reef that protected the mainland from thousands of miles of Atlantic Ocean.  Skimming along in three to eight feet of glass-flat water was like looking into a looking glass of grasses, starfish, conch and coral.   Upon arriving at the barrier islands there were several tiny islands with sand and turtle grass flats on the protected back side.  We fished the deeper turtle grass first and landed some nice Mutton Snapper, then worked our way onto the sand flats and proceeded to get into several schools of bonefish.  After several hookups it was clear that these fish where in the larger range for Marls bonefish and pealed off a lot more line.  Buddy explained to me these are tidal fish that have to deal with a lot more current– subsequently they are in better shape physically.

The highlight of the day was when we had worked around the island to the northern tip where the island is fully exposed to the Atlantic.  I hooked up to the biggest bonefish of my entire time bone fishing career.  After some of the biggest runs I’d ever experienced, I was finally making some headway bringing back some line when out of the corner of my eye I saw a large fish cruising along the shoreline.  I yelled to Buddy and he immediately hopped down from the platform and grabbed my spare rod.   Much to my delight my mentor and the master of long- distance casting “piles one up” and makes one of my “buck- fever” casts.  But it didn’t matter because I had one of my new “Bonefish Buddy” flies on that spare rod and that fish couldn’t resist it.   And I couldn’t resist the opportunity to give Buddy one of his own quotes, “You tried to scare that one away!”   We landed the double hookup with both fish in the nine-pound range.

At that we decided to call it a day– and a trip, and headed home back across the bay. As if the day wasn’t exciting enough, while zipping along the flat water, a four foot Spotted Ray launched up out of the water right next to the boat to finish it off.  But the biggest surprise of the trip was when, for the first time ever, Buddy asked me for one of my fly creations.  

In all the cooking I’ve done for various bosses and sailing teams, I’m always being asked for my recipes.   I reply, “I don’t write them down, sorry.”   So this is my first recipe of any kind—the “Bonefish Buddy” recipe.  If my fly is chosen I would like to dedicate it to my friend, teacher and guide, Buddy Pinder.  Any royalties I might earn would go to the Bonefish Tarpon Trust.

“Bonefish Buddy” Fly Tying Recipe:

Hook: #o4 – o8 Tiemco 811s

Thread: FL Chartreuse, Orange or FL Shell Pink UTC 140

Eyes: Dazl-Eyes Black 1/8” – 5/32”

Body: EP Brush 1.5” Tan, Coyote or Senyo Chromatic Erie Emerald

Tail & Wing: Light Red Fox Fur

Legs: Grizzly Micro Legs Smoke or Shrimp Pink

Side Wings: Teal Breast Feathers with Dot or Dot Added with Marker

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Brett Reed