Shouldn't leave this thread without a pic of the creature-flies I love tying for the tropical flats.

Never seem to be able to follow existing recipes exactly, so every fly tied is different from the last! Great fun experimenting...

Also tied a bunch of Flexo Crabs in response to youtube videos recommending them for trigger-fish etc but never found the need to tie one on. The Moon Crab in the above pic is not mine but recommended as a dead cert for permit by one of the guides. Never tied that one on either!

Lost a few flies in shark-attacks on hooked bonefish, and a couple were busted off trying to lift bigger bones away from sharks right at my feet! There is a youtube clip that shows the shark phenomenon well. The theme is chasing bump-head parrot-fish but in the lead-up Kane Chenoweth gets pack-attacked a few times trying to land bonefish. Fast-forward to 4:45 for the action. Mind you, he does the wrong thing IMHO by leaping around all over the place getting the sharks excited. Best to hold your nerve and stand still. If you're going to lose the fish anyway, no need to escalate the situation.

In the absence of sharks, I totally wore one fly out on bones and biddys. One eye was missing and most of the EP fibres were chewed off, but it was still catching when I retired it! Wanted to keep it as a souvenir but sadly it got tossed.

Now time to start turning my attention to the much bigger flies needed for the smash-and-grab of run-off barra fishing, but hard to get those remarkable Cocos flats out of my mind!