Shauno
12-05-2004, 06:53 AM
Hey this forum is quiet hey!
Well thought i might take some new comers to the art through a few of the tactics that have worked for me,
in regards to breams on fly that is!
Well where do I start? I'll start with tackle.
Rods and lines
Any mid range fly rod can be used to catch bream on flies, the only thing that really dominates what tackle should be used is the weight of the flies to be thrown. By that I mean some flies for example those with medium to heavy dunbell eyes, some crazy charlies and clousers etc. are a little hard to cast on light tacke e.g 4 and 5 weight tackle and may require a 6, 7 or even 8 weight rod and line to keep the flies up in the casting stroke.
4 weight rods are the lightest i choose to throw. This is generally late in the season when the water is clear, still and the fish are a little shy. The reason for this is simple, the smaller flies i throw seem not to spook as many fish on impact with the water as some heavier ones may!
6 weight rods are my preference when fishing a vast majority of situations and early to middle of the season!
Some guys use 8 weights, this is mainly to combat the fact that the odd jewie may jump onboard for a ride, also If your chasin supersized bream on fly the larger flies that 8 weight tackle can throw naturally attract less attention from small fish and much more attention from football sized breambos.
In terms of Fly lines, this need not be complex, the factor to consider when choosing a fly line, is water depth to be fished. Floating lines are excellent when anglers want to target bream during low light periods over shallow flats, mud banks, over shallow rock bars and when bream are feeding on surface foods around the snags. Alternatively if an angler wants to fish deeper with the same line, say to about 6-8 feet, he/she can simply increase his leader length and use a slightly heavier fly. this can be counted down to the appropriate depth then striped slowly to tempt the slightly deeper bream!
Intermediate lines and or slow sinking and sink tip lines can be very handy also when the bream are in water of about 6-20 feet.
With these sinking lines the leader is generally kept shorter to keep the fly sink rate level with the tip of the fly line. All lines have their place in the bream arsenal, however a floating line will get you out of trouble in most situations in the shallower estuaries.
Other issues to be considered are the taper of a fly line, take no real notice of this as the only ones that'll really bother you for bream fishing are:
weight forward: weight is stacked well forward fly lines taper to aid casting and distance.
Double taper: this is very similar to a weightforward line except there is one taper at each end of the fly line, so effectively you get twice the life out of the line, because you can reverse the line when one end starts to show wear.
Shooting head, only really advantagious when using heavier rods, reels and lines, when fatigue of the arm is an issue, this is because a shooting head/taper line can be shot (cast) with one or two falso casts.
Shooting heads may also be usefull when casting into a wind.
Other features of flylines such as the degree of presentation delacassy, and the ability of the lines to 'turn over' larger flies can be important but not so much for bream fishing!
Reels
This is generally not of huge concern, just like anything buy the best you can afford, reels will generally only differ in price depending on the material they are built of, the quality of the components and the drag incorperated within the reel and the weight of the reel ( new high tech alloys are lighter materials and genarlly cost more).
Large arbor fly reels (those with a large internal sppol diameter) are good as they store the flyline in larger loops on the spool causing less memory retention etc.
The line holding capacity of fly reels is almost irrelavant, my PB bream on fly in 44cm and it didn't quite get me into the backing, bigger jewies will and salmon etc will, ohh yeah and smelly carp do!
Make sure the reels got at least 100yds of 20lb breaking strain, dacron or braid under the flyline.
Bream Flies
Bream flies can be as varied as other styles of lures they take. Each person has his and hers (mim!) favourite in my book a locally named pattern called a deeper dan is the go, this is essentuially just a crazy Charlie with a short tail (tied in yellow of all colours and also black!), we (the local swoffa's) have found this pattern simple devastating on the Onk and Port river bream. Other patterns that rate a look are baited breaths in Fluro Pink (for dirty or deepy tanned stained water) and Olive green and a Pumpinseed brown for clear water.
Retrieves
The best retrieve is basically to use short discrete strips I have found, when I say short i mean 20-30 cm strips, some days when the fish are really shy a figure 8 retreive along the bottom is deady. Other days the speedy retrieves are also good, but in generally slow and medium to long pauses among 30cm strips.
Areas to fly fish
All the same terrain that one fishes with rubber and crankbaits can be fished with flies, I have personally found that rock bars are the best, especially those which are covered by about 1.5m of water on a full tide. This habitat is closely followed by the snags and the flats, depending on the stage of the season fish will be holding in different area of the river/ estuary, a little homework will find the angler in touch of what going on.
In Summary
lets face it fly fishing is a slow searching tool, so it's not a technique that will find fish quickly in an unfamiliar peice of water, but once fish are found holding at certain locations it can be or for me is the one of the very best ways to catch big Bream.
If you are looking for a new spin on the bream fishing theme, then grab your trout stick or you Westerners get down the tackle shop and grab a beginners outfit and give it a go, you'll be suprised the fish that can be caught, not just the bream, but we consistantly get salmon, jewies, bream of coarse, trevally, even carp fight like demons through the long wand!
Good luck
Tight lines (pref floating weightforward)
Picture of Joe my initial tutor with a nice little onky fish on dusk
Well thought i might take some new comers to the art through a few of the tactics that have worked for me,
in regards to breams on fly that is!
Well where do I start? I'll start with tackle.
Rods and lines
Any mid range fly rod can be used to catch bream on flies, the only thing that really dominates what tackle should be used is the weight of the flies to be thrown. By that I mean some flies for example those with medium to heavy dunbell eyes, some crazy charlies and clousers etc. are a little hard to cast on light tacke e.g 4 and 5 weight tackle and may require a 6, 7 or even 8 weight rod and line to keep the flies up in the casting stroke.
4 weight rods are the lightest i choose to throw. This is generally late in the season when the water is clear, still and the fish are a little shy. The reason for this is simple, the smaller flies i throw seem not to spook as many fish on impact with the water as some heavier ones may!
6 weight rods are my preference when fishing a vast majority of situations and early to middle of the season!
Some guys use 8 weights, this is mainly to combat the fact that the odd jewie may jump onboard for a ride, also If your chasin supersized bream on fly the larger flies that 8 weight tackle can throw naturally attract less attention from small fish and much more attention from football sized breambos.
In terms of Fly lines, this need not be complex, the factor to consider when choosing a fly line, is water depth to be fished. Floating lines are excellent when anglers want to target bream during low light periods over shallow flats, mud banks, over shallow rock bars and when bream are feeding on surface foods around the snags. Alternatively if an angler wants to fish deeper with the same line, say to about 6-8 feet, he/she can simply increase his leader length and use a slightly heavier fly. this can be counted down to the appropriate depth then striped slowly to tempt the slightly deeper bream!
Intermediate lines and or slow sinking and sink tip lines can be very handy also when the bream are in water of about 6-20 feet.
With these sinking lines the leader is generally kept shorter to keep the fly sink rate level with the tip of the fly line. All lines have their place in the bream arsenal, however a floating line will get you out of trouble in most situations in the shallower estuaries.
Other issues to be considered are the taper of a fly line, take no real notice of this as the only ones that'll really bother you for bream fishing are:
weight forward: weight is stacked well forward fly lines taper to aid casting and distance.
Double taper: this is very similar to a weightforward line except there is one taper at each end of the fly line, so effectively you get twice the life out of the line, because you can reverse the line when one end starts to show wear.
Shooting head, only really advantagious when using heavier rods, reels and lines, when fatigue of the arm is an issue, this is because a shooting head/taper line can be shot (cast) with one or two falso casts.
Shooting heads may also be usefull when casting into a wind.
Other features of flylines such as the degree of presentation delacassy, and the ability of the lines to 'turn over' larger flies can be important but not so much for bream fishing!
Reels
This is generally not of huge concern, just like anything buy the best you can afford, reels will generally only differ in price depending on the material they are built of, the quality of the components and the drag incorperated within the reel and the weight of the reel ( new high tech alloys are lighter materials and genarlly cost more).
Large arbor fly reels (those with a large internal sppol diameter) are good as they store the flyline in larger loops on the spool causing less memory retention etc.
The line holding capacity of fly reels is almost irrelavant, my PB bream on fly in 44cm and it didn't quite get me into the backing, bigger jewies will and salmon etc will, ohh yeah and smelly carp do!
Make sure the reels got at least 100yds of 20lb breaking strain, dacron or braid under the flyline.
Bream Flies
Bream flies can be as varied as other styles of lures they take. Each person has his and hers (mim!) favourite in my book a locally named pattern called a deeper dan is the go, this is essentuially just a crazy Charlie with a short tail (tied in yellow of all colours and also black!), we (the local swoffa's) have found this pattern simple devastating on the Onk and Port river bream. Other patterns that rate a look are baited breaths in Fluro Pink (for dirty or deepy tanned stained water) and Olive green and a Pumpinseed brown for clear water.
Retrieves
The best retrieve is basically to use short discrete strips I have found, when I say short i mean 20-30 cm strips, some days when the fish are really shy a figure 8 retreive along the bottom is deady. Other days the speedy retrieves are also good, but in generally slow and medium to long pauses among 30cm strips.
Areas to fly fish
All the same terrain that one fishes with rubber and crankbaits can be fished with flies, I have personally found that rock bars are the best, especially those which are covered by about 1.5m of water on a full tide. This habitat is closely followed by the snags and the flats, depending on the stage of the season fish will be holding in different area of the river/ estuary, a little homework will find the angler in touch of what going on.
In Summary
lets face it fly fishing is a slow searching tool, so it's not a technique that will find fish quickly in an unfamiliar peice of water, but once fish are found holding at certain locations it can be or for me is the one of the very best ways to catch big Bream.
If you are looking for a new spin on the bream fishing theme, then grab your trout stick or you Westerners get down the tackle shop and grab a beginners outfit and give it a go, you'll be suprised the fish that can be caught, not just the bream, but we consistantly get salmon, jewies, bream of coarse, trevally, even carp fight like demons through the long wand!
Good luck
Tight lines (pref floating weightforward)
Picture of Joe my initial tutor with a nice little onky fish on dusk