# Do bonefish only eat off the bottom?



## mightyrime (Jul 18, 2016)

Headed to Hawaii in August. Mostly surfing and family time but i got a house on a bonefish flat. Bones are few are far between but large and generally in 2'-3' of water.

Will a bonefish only eat a fly off the bottom? If i need to get that fly down 2' + quickly it is going to need some lead.

Or do i not need to go that heavy and just get it down 70% into the water column before i strip?

Also any patterns to tie appreciated

thanks


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## Seymour fish (May 13, 2018)

L


mightyrime said:


> Headed to Hawaii in August. Mostly surfing and family time but i got a house on a bonefish flat. Bones are few are far between but large and generally in 2'-3' of water.
> 
> Will a bonefish only eat a fly off the bottom? If i need to get that fly down 2' + quickly it is going to need some lead.
> 
> ...


Looking into the same conundrum. On the bottom, yes. Count of three/ 4 at the outside, or proper lead becomes low probability. Thinking #2, with 1/60 oz dumbbell tied a bit sparse. How to soften the splash while achieving parameters is challenge


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Bones -particularly big bones don’t just feed on the bottom... The problem is that it’s situational and absolutely depends on where and when you find them.

My best advice is to make a point of finding a fly shop in Hawaii or maybe on the mainland that has customers that fish (or guide) there. 

To prove my point I knew a guy years ago that caught a ten pound bonefish on a Creek Chub Darter (an old wooden plug that will still draw a lot of strikes from big snook, tarpon, redfish, and trout- all day long). This was down in the Content Keys...
In Biscayne Bay, again years ago, I had a really big bonefish chase a SeaBee plug all the way back to my skiff - trying to eat a six inch long chrome plug that I was working at speed, trying to draw a strike from a big ‘cuda.
This was on the old “radio tower” flat (the northern most flat at Stiltsville) before hurricane Andrew...


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## Seymour fish (May 13, 2018)

lemaymiami said:


> Bones -particularly big bones don’t just feed on the bottom... The problem is that it’s situational and absolutely depends on where and when you find them.
> 
> My best advice is to make a point of finding a fly shop in Hawaii or maybe on the mainland that has customers that fish (or guide) there.
> 
> ...


Bob, I have caught them well over 8 lbs on a DOA baitbuster cranking hell out of it, etc. it just ain’t how the smart money bets


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## mightyrime (Jul 18, 2016)

I will be on Kauai.. No fly shop there. There is a guide i am toying with hiring for a half day.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

and just to round out a bit about how bonefish actually behave I once saw a monster school of big, big bonefish (most looked to be at or over ten pounds...) bunched up tight and running the way a school of mullet does when pushing south down the coast on the Atlantic side of things... I was standing on the Lake Worth pier (Palm Beach for those not familiar with the area) and at first took them for a school of mullet from a distance. It was spring-time, late seventies, and I never saw anything like that ever again...

Years later I learned that the big fish school up at spawning time and actually head offshore... Lake Worth is a lot farther north than I ever expected to see a single bonefish - much less hundreds of big ones... Otherwise when actually fishing for them I always figured that Government Cut was the northern boundary...


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## BWest (Jul 19, 2017)

I'm certainly no expert on bones, but I have seen several videos of Capt. Will Vallely catching them on gurglers, and poppers in Turks and Caicos. He's @bonefishunlimited on instagram


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

I think a gurgler on any shrimp, crab floater will work. Yes there mouth is on the bottom but they chase bait, crabs and shrimp


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

Nifty....fish stories about bonefish.
I have one to tell....

Long ago when the boat traffic in Biscayne Bay was minimal,
and it was legal to pick lobsters up in the channels between the bars and islands
ran into a school of ghosts on the edge of a pass just north of Soldiers Key.
I had been drifting the channel edge with the outgoing tide looking for antennae
when I noticed a deeper sand hole in the grass flat just off the channel.
Steep edges that the bugs burrow back into, so always good to check.
Eased into the hole and found myself surrounded with a very nervous school of glass minnows.
Found out why when a school of what I first thought large mullet blew through.
But mullet don't eat minnows and these fish were actively busting the glassies.
Took a couple of minutes to actually figure out they were bonefish.
They'd blast through, then run out into the channel, let the minnows bunch up, then hit 'em again.
Never seen it before or since. Right place right time.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

I have a friend who guides Biscayne Bay ... He's often remarked about bonefish near Homestead Bayfront tearing up glass minnows...

I've never seen them myself but believe him without question... I figure all you need are lots of glass minnow pinned up shallow where bones can terrorize them when they're able...


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## numbskull (Jan 30, 2019)

In the Caicos I also have repeatedly seen single bonefish surface feeding at daybreak in shallow water. They lunge the front half of their body out of the water when doing so. It typically stops soon after sunrise but I on one occasion I came across an entire school surface feeding and driving white bait across a flat in mid-day.


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## ifsteve (Jul 1, 2010)

I think the question is really irrelevant unless you want to catch one on something off the bottom just to say you did. As Capt Bob said its all situational.

But for most every fish you encounter you will do better with a fly on the bottom. Why would you rig any other way? There is a reason they have downturned mouths. The bottom line is that its Hawai not Belize. You aren't going to get a ton of shots so go with the highest percentage approach.


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## texasag07 (Nov 11, 2014)

Look at the flies those guys in Hawaii post on Instagram, you see few to non with beadchain. Give them the lead.


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

mightyrime said:


> I will be on Kauai.. No fly shop there. There is a guide i am toying with hiring for a half day.


Hire the guide. Make sure you have good wade boots.

I spent a day bonefishing wading off Oahu. Having the guide walk me through the approach and tactics on those first few fish was a huge benefit to the remainder of the shots I had through out the day. He definitely sped up my "ah ha!" moment.

I was able to catch 5 and broke off more.

We tried to get the fly ahead of the fish's path and then wait until he found it and tipped up on it before moving it at all. Alot of it had to do with using the fly that the locals knew would work on those fish. Consider that forage and food differs for predators in different locales.


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## Half Shell (Jul 19, 2016)

lemaymiami said:


> I have a friend who guides Biscayne Bay ... He's often remarked about bonefish near Homestead Bayfront tearing up glass minnows...
> 
> I've never seen them myself but believe him without question... I figure all you need are lots of glass minnow pinned up shallow where bones can terrorize them when they're able...


While on my boat, a friend of mine caught a large bonefish there on a 1/4-ounce silver Krocadile spoon 3 years ago. We had 2 others hit us (same spoon) within the next 15 min but didn't get them.


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## ianwilson (Apr 16, 2019)

ive had large bonefish take ep minnows right under the surface. These were Arubian bonefish and were chasing large schools of whitebait.


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## Jgb06 (Sep 8, 2016)

They eat mid-water all the time and I'm sure you could feed a happy enough one on the surface. Just can be tough to get their attention because they are looking down a lot.


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## MRichardson (May 27, 2010)

Last bone I caught was near Marathon in 8 feet of water. There were 3 of them cruising midway in the water column, how I saw them is beyond me.. perhaps because they were 20' from the boat. I backhand flipped a bitters-style fly toward them, expecting nothing, and one of them swam up and inhaled it. You just never know. 

I believe I have heard the larger ones have a lot of finfish in their diet. Which would indicate they aren't always focusing on the bottom.


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2019)

mightyrime said:


> I will be on Kauai.. No fly shop there. There is a guide i am toying with hiring for a half day.


Reach out to the guys at Yellow Dog Flyfishing Travel. A lot of them have fished in the Hawaiian Islands and can answer all of your questions.


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## Seymour fish (May 13, 2018)

MRichardson said:


> Last bone I caught was near Marathon in 8 feet of water. There were 3 of them cruising midway in the water column, how I saw them is beyond me.. perhaps because they were 20' from the boat. I backhand flipped a bitters-style fly toward them, expecting nothing, and one of them swam up and inhaled it. You just never know.
> 
> I believe I have heard the larger ones have a lot of finfish in their diet. Which would indicate they aren't always focusing on the bottom.


This is a general comment about the theater of the absurd drift in this thread: have never seen such a collection of exceptions which prove the rule


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## Half Shell (Jul 19, 2016)

Seymour fish said:


> This is a general comment about the theater of the absurd drift in this thread: have never seen such a collection of exceptions which prove the rule


What are you talking about? The OP asked a question about bonefish eating further up in the water column or only off the bottom. Lots of people commented on catching them not on the bottom. Seems pretty on topic to me. Did I not understand your post?


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

Half Shell said:


> Seems pretty in topic to me.


And others didn't respond until the OP mentioned Hawaii at which point some of us shared experiences with those bones. 

If I really wanted to hijack things I would talk about keeping a 12wt handy since GTs have been known to edge up on those pancake flats from time to time...

But that would be off topic.


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## coconutgroves (Sep 23, 2013)

To make everyone happy who is complaining about "drift" in comments about the OPs question, I'll address the OP question directly:

No, they do not.

Jeez guys, if people just answered you'd complain about not providing enough detail. Can't have it both ways.

Now onto providing examples like others have in the thread.

Bonefish will eat what food source is abundant in the conditions they are in. I am no Aaron Adams, but I've fished enough different locations to have seen this. For example, I rarely thrown a gummy minnow for them in Belize. But I've been to Los Roques twice and the gummy is thrown 80% of the time. And the fish in LR are in shallow water (a foot) - they will charge from several feet out and crash the gummy. It is crazy, awesome, and unlike any bonefish eat you'll ever have, and the fish are primarily 5 - 6 pounds, with legit 8 to 10 pounders around.

As other posters have stated, ocean bones behave differently. They will eat suspended in the water column, but they are larger, wiser and pickier. Flies with different sink rates should be taken (lead, bead) to be chosen depending on the depth of the water.

Was that too much drift for some of you?


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## MRichardson (May 27, 2010)

Seymour fish said:


> This is a general comment about the theater of the absurd drift in this thread: have never seen such a collection of exceptions which prove the rule


Drift? Exactly what do you mean? 

I don't think anyone is stating that it's unusual for them to feed high in the water column. But that is not what was asked. The questoin was do they only eat off the bottom, and the answer is clearly no. Providing examples of that is not "drift" nor is it absurd.

What is absurd is your post, making a snide comment about something you have no valuable input on and which constitutes "drift" perfectly.


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## fjmaverick (Sep 18, 2015)

The only bones I ever seen are in a flying V formation and always cruise right by my bait.


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## LowTideFly (Apr 8, 2016)

I’ve caught em mid water


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## Micro Thinfisher (Jan 27, 2018)

While fishing an ocean flat in Cuba in 2013 a group of us were casting to bones swimming against an incoming tide picking up small shrimp, crabs or whatever was floating their way, including our flies. One of the best days I ever spent on the water. We would catch a bone from a school of about 60-80 fish strong release him and cast right back and catch another....it was great fun!


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## Micro Thinfisher (Jan 27, 2018)

This book has some excellent information in it on bonefish feeding in their natural habitat.
https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/fly-fishing-for-bonefish-chico-fernandez/1103279003?ean=9780811719766


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