Their preferred habitat makes them a premier fly rod fish.

Bonefish inhabit most of the world's tropical waters. Their range circumspans the globe. The most popular bonefish destinations are Christmas Island, Florida Keyes, Bahamas, Belize and Yucatan.

Bonefish average 1 1/2 to 15 pounds throughout their range. Most bonefish in shallow water are 2 to 5 pounds. A ten-pound fish is a trophy anywhere.
Four year old bonefish average 20" long.  Twenty five inch bonefish are 10-11 years old.  Trophy bonefish of 30" may be more than twenty years old.

Bonefish are capitalistic bottom feeders. Their main diet consists of mollusks, worms and crustaceans.  Some of their prey such as clams and worms are sedentary burrowers.  At times bonefish will harvest clam beds with a hydraulic mining technique called mudding.  Bonefish will locate breathing holes of  these hard shelled mollusks and shoot streams of water from their mouths down the holes until the clam is exposed. Bonefish are able to crush small clams.  Many they swallow whole.  The hydraulic mining stirs up clouds of lightweight silt.  Often several fish will be mudding together.  As the bonefish dig up the bottom buried shrimp and crabs are also uncovered. Most are captured as the scurry to escape.  A fly presented to the leading edge of the mud can produce immediate strikes.  
Bonefish can be in singles, double or schools of hundreds.  Schools of three to a dozen fish is average. They are always on the move. They cruise around and root around like herds of pigs.  Like pigs, they are able to consume a wide range of foods. And like pigs, they have their preferred foods on any given day.  Bonefish like to nose around in shallow coral gardens.  They can follow waves into extremely shallow water.  Most flies used under these conditions are shrimp imitators.  They are cast ahead of the fish and retrieved like escaping coral shrimp.  Some of these varieties are brightly colored.  Most are colored to blend with the colors of the bottom.  A times Bonefish will target small baitfish. We have done extremely well on some flats in Belize using small minnow flies.
Bonefish flies are small by saltwater standards.  Most are lightly dressed on size 4 to 8 hooks.  These flies are easy to cast with 6, 7 and 8 weight rods.  Bonefish are sized like large trout to medium steelhead.  This is rather convenient since that is the size of tackle which most of us already own.  There are places where an angler can have a ball on small bones with 5 weight gear.  A 6-pond bonefish on a 6-weight fly rod is a definite peaking experience.  Most anglers would rather have an eight weight rod to savor the experience.  The most popular rods for bonefish are multi-piece 8-weights.  Hard surfaced weight forward lines are most popular for handling wind or long casts.  Your steelhead reel will handle bonefish.  Two hundred yards of backing is a nice bit of comfort where bones of over nine pounds may be encountered.  
Rarely does one have to worry about snagging anything on the back cast.  However, serious bonefishing requires accurate placement of the fly at a variety of distances.  A good practice regimen to get prepared for bonefishing is to set up a series of 2' diameter targets on the lawn from 30' to 60' and practice casting 20 minutes a day for two weeks before your bonefish trip.  Doing that will quadruple your bonefish production.