I think people often over analyze flies. Not saying that's wrong or bad, and if people like doing that than keep on doing it. But in the case of bonefish (as it is for most fish) presentation is responsible for 95% of the success rate. When bonefish are on the flats feeding, they will investigate anything that moves provided it doesn't spook them first. So getting your fly inside the fishes vision area without spooking the fish is your first priority. After that, your main goal is to watch the fish and react accordingly. If the fish picks up on your fly, don't move it and let the fish approach. If it hasn't picked up on your fly when you cast it, start a slow strip and watch the fish. If you pull the fly outside the fish's vision area, re-cast. If the fish begins to track your fly, stop. If it turns off, just bump the fly enough to the fish's attention. Again, to know when that happens, you have to watch the fish. Many guides will keep saying strip, strip as the fish follows your fly. The problem with this technique is often the fish will either get too close to you and spook, or it will give up and go looking for easier prey to catch. Bonefish don't race down their prey like a jack or cuda, they get close and then pounce on their prey, pinning it to the bottom, sucking it into their crushers. If you keep pulling the fly outside of that "attack zone" the bonefish will look elsewhere. Consider also that most bonefish prey aren't built to outrun a bonefish anyway. Their primary means of avoiding being eaten is to not be seen in the first place and to hide if they are seen. Shrimp, crabs, worms, they will all bury into the sand when threatened. So continuing to strip the fly is not typical prey response.

As for flies, you don't need a ton of different flies. There are a couple key things to address. First is weight. You will likely fish in several depths of water as the tides change. Therefore, you need flies with no weight, with light or medium weight, and a few flies with heavier lead barbell eyes. Personally for me, I prefer to go heavier rather than lighter because I want my fly to hug the bottom. I find bonefish rarely spook because of the splash of the fly hitting the water. The fly line makes a much bigger splash and noise. Often, the splash of the fly is what gets the bonefish to suddenly turn and look in the direction of my fly. Certainly, tailing fish in water so shallow their tails and dorsal fins stick out, I'll go with a lighter fly and longer leader. Second priority when it comes to bonefish flies is to match the bottom. 90% of the time, some light tan, sand color fly is going to work just fine. But sometimes you'll be over turtle grass or a rocky bottom with some soft corals and a slightly darker or greener color is better (the tan one will probably work just as well). Also, the bottom structure can cause weighted flies to quickly hang up or drag weeds, so a lighter fly that will skip over the top of the bottom helps avoid getting hung up - which by the way will usually spook the bonefish. Size is the third consideration. In the Bahamas, the typical flies are size 2 or 4, but I've gone as large as 1/0. Rarely do I use smaller sizes in the Bahamas. In Belize or Christmas Island though, the typical fly size is 6 or 8. Hawai'i they like large flies and the bottom is usually darker unless you're over on Kaneohe side. In Cuba is sort of middle ground, flies more in the 4 to 6 range seem to be preferred but I've had great bonefish days with standard Bahamas bonefish flies too. One last comment, keep the amount of flash to a minimum - one or two strands of krystal flash is plenty.

And my one final comment - as a good friend of mine who is an excellent bonefisher said one day when we were having this same sort of discussion "Stick a Gotcha in your pocket and go fishin'". That's been sound advice and I've remembered ever since.