If you’re out to target bumpies specifically, I recommend a 10-weight. Modern 9-weights such as the Hardy Zephrus work well, as they have the power to battle a parrotfish but still have the finesse of presentation. More are caught on 9- weights primarily because that is what anglers tend to be carrying on those flats (interchanging them with a 12-weight for giant trevally). The setup for bumpies is normally a 9- or 10-weight rod. Here they can spend the day lazily moving along as a herd, grazing as they go. Bumpies are also fond of gravel bottoms, which seem to relax them, especially those located in the middle of turtle grass. If you were to hook one here your chances of landing it would be very slim, as your line likely would be cut on the coral almost immediately. Occasionally they will tail around coral bommies. You will see them playing in the surf line amongst the coral heads, waiting to come onto the flats. The best places to target bumpies are huge, open turtle grass flats, such as those found on Providence or Farquhar Atoll in the Indian Ocean. Also, things have also come a very long way since then regarding approach and tactics when presenting to these densely packed schools (which I will detail later). I can dismiss this, as I have seen it with my own eyes: bumpies tracking off the school, tilting over sideways to eyeball a tasty morsel, and then eating it. When tales first emerged from Farquhar Atoll in the Seychelles of these massive beasts being caught on fly, the angling community was pretty skeptical that parrotfish ate crabs, and fly anglers believed that, like milkfish, most parrotfish were foul-hooked. The odds are stacked against you, and fishing for them can be incredibly frustrating: For every six to eight you hook you might land one-but that is the challenge! They are a spooky species at the best of the times, requiring stealth and light tackle, but once hooked they are incredibly powerful and tend to head for the ocean. What makes them so exciting to catch? The bumphead parrotfish is the largest fish you’ll find tailing on the flats, and they tend to move in schools of up to 50 fish with their large bluey-green flags visible for miles. While hunting crustaceans, they use this beak to crush and eat dead coral heads, which they then digest to produce fine white sand. These bluey-green monsters roam in herds on a number of atolls in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, and I liken them to the “bison of the flats.” Growing to well over 100 pounds, these gentle monsters come with a pair of bolt croppers on the front end that bite through coral and could easily remove a digit if you’re not careful. Of all the species that fly anglers target on the flats, the bumphead parrotfish might just be weirdest-looking.
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