Martyn White | Thursday, 1 October 2026
Ronan has been visiting Tokyo this week and we've had a great time fishing the bay and trying to create a beer shortage but I'll leave that for his report. I'm going for a variant fly this week, it's still in keeping with the minimalist flies I've been giving you recently.
The harbour Island Charlie is obviously a crazy charlie pattern, but somewhat unusually for a bonefish fly doesn't claim to be anything else.It's a slightly unusual colour combination, but is actually a pretty good flats pattern when you want something a bit darker and varigated. The red and barred brown are suggestive of plenty of little creatures that fish love to eat. And that's not just in saltwater either, although it doesn't fit the general pattern of popular crayfish immitations it's ideal for the small crayfish that are around especially in early spring.
There's nothing not to like about this fly. It's a proven platform for bones and other flats species, it's quick and easy to tie, it's versatile in terms of effective sizes and weights, and most importantly fish bite it. Here's the pattern:
Hook: Saltwater 8-2
Thread: Red
Body:Thread overwrapped with 12-20lb mono
Weight: Beadchain or dumbbells to suit
Wing: Fox squirrel tail
Pretty spartan, but it's all you need. The fly is in Dick Brown's book Bonefish Fly Patterns which lists the overwrap in the pattern, although the pictured fly clearly isn't wrapped, so if you want to omit that and just cement the thread for protection do that. ALternatively you could use D-rib or vinyl rib as most people do with Crazy Charlies nowadays, the fish won't give two hoots either way.
Something I do like to do if I have good long squirrel tail is beef this up to maybe a 1/0 or 2/0 and tie it as a bendback. It's great for mangrove bashing, or fishing cover for black bass. The colour goives a pretty good silhouette lending which is ideal for stained ore slightly muddy water. Plus, being such a quick tie you don't mind losing them when you get a bit overconfident and throw your fly a bit too deep in the sticks.