Fly Tying - The Bream Shrimp

The Australian bream species are notoriously difficult targets on fly - they are very cautious and fussy feeders that require certain things in a fly to be effective. In my local waters in Sydney one of the main sources of food for bream and other estuary species are the juvenile prawns that swarm through the harbour at some times of year, but seem to be present to some degree throughout the year. I believe most of these are juvenile eastern king prawns, but this pattern is a good general representation of a generic juvenile prawn that should cover most species.
In this video I show you how to tie this pattern that I have developed over a couple of years of intensely targeting bream, and give you some of the reasoning behind the design choices. I also talk a little bit about how to fish this fly for bream, and at the end I broach a somewhat controversial subject about bream on fly....
I really hope you enjoy this, please subscribe if you do!
Materials:
Hooks -
Mustad 3906B Size 6 (main)
Mustad 3399A Size 12 (stinger)
Eyes - Blackmagic Leader 100lb Tough Trace
Body - Senyo's Laser Dub (Tan and Rusty Bronze)
Bead Chain Eyes (medium)
Wing -
EP Fibre (tan)
Wapsi Supreme Hair (shrimp)
#flytying
#breamonfly

[@brianperkins4155]

Remarkable and inspiring. Thanks. You brought back memories of fifty years ago when I took a year out of life in Scotland. My four year old son and I would gather feathers on the Moors one day, make flies that night and fish the next day

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Ah that’s wonderful, thanks Brian! That’s what fly fishing is all about. :)

[@markrigg6623]

Hi Steve. Just found your channel. I'm a commercial fly tier and live close to the Parra and have spent a considerable time chasing bream on fly. (I know Radge from my time in the Sydney flyrodders.) I just wanted to make a couple of observations on points in your video. Having instructed lots of saltwater fly fisherman over the years, its very noticeable how when chasing bream, if they miss a hit they always assume its because the fish is "nipping the tail" of the fly, and hence missing the hooks. In my experience, having kept one in an aquarium, bream , when they feed on things like prawns, nippers, fish and worms , are actually implosion feeders the majority of the time. That is, they inhale the item in a big vacuuum like rush of water through the mouth and out the gills. They dont swim up to something and bite down on it in a conventional sense unless is an oyster or mussel. Its noticeable that flies that dont have a significant "tail" , say a crazy charlie, also experience a similar proportion of missed hits! Whats happening here a lot of the time is the fly goes down the hatch but when we stike the hook is hitting the rock hard oyster crushing plates inside its mouth and skidding off rather than digging in. Now the reason for all this preamble is to do with your fly. You've been missing hits and decided to put a stinger hook in the tail. Your fly is tied with very stiff and heavy mono eyes, (which you acknowledge yourself) and these appear to be splayed at a considerable angle. When a fish tries to inhale the fly they are providing a huge physical obstruction to the fly going into the fishes mouth. Now dont get me wrong here, youve put a stinger hook in to alleviate the problem of what you think is "short striking" of the fly, and you're catching fishing, but I do think that your understanding of the cause and effect here is flawed. I pretty much exclusively use a number 6 baited breath for bream and these are commonly being inhaled deeply and lodging in the throat of the fish, almost to the point of making unhooking them problomatic! And yes, I still miss hits like everyone else. But its their hard mouth in my opinion, not them nipping the tail of the fly. I should add that the obstruction problem with the eyes of your fly is magnified as the size of fish decreases. My retrieve is different to most other anglers Ive seen as well, I use very short, sharp rapid strips, only 5 or 6 inches at a time , rather than longer gliding strips more suited in my opinion to imitating a swimming fish. Anyway, there's no rule that says you have to fish like I do but I thought you might be interested on things Ive discussed here. Its good to have a local fly fishing channel so all the best with the channel and keep the content coming.

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Thanks Mark, some great info there! That's good to know about the implosion feeding and the hard mouths, sounds right to me. What I can tell you is this, I've had low hook up rate problems with all styles of flies (mono eyes or not) on bream, where you get a strike but no hook up. Since I've been using a stinger hook in these designs my catch rate has gone up very considerably, or more specifically the conversion rate of strikes to hook ups. It definitely hooks smaller to medium fish more often, but even much bigger fish including my pb yellowfin have been hooked only on the stinger hook. I have also experimented with using long shank hooks instead of stingers to put the point further back but it does not work in the real world nearly as well as a small stinger hook in my experience, and I have put in a fair bit of time with both styles. Perhaps the finer wire of the small stinger hook does a better job of penetrating the hard mouth of the bream....Thanks for the feedback, always great to hear from other local fly fishos! Hope to see you out on the water some time! :)

[@markrigg6623]

@@PeachyFlyFishing Yes the stinger is doing the job so if it aint broke dont fix it! It was more what the cause for its nessecity was that I was commenting on . I'll knock one up for myself when I get time but I'll do the eyes with 50lb mono.

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

@@markrigg6623 Let me know how it goes! Yes I'd be interested to see if the 50lb mono makes a difference in the eyes. I still do catch plenty on the main hook as well, but it may be that protruding eyes deflects a few hook ups. I think it's important to have the eyes there though as a trigger point, bream will sometimes inspect the fly closely and flare on it for a while before they will commit. Sometimes they will smash anything that's close, other times they can be more selective....

[@markrigg6623]

@@PeachyFlyFishing Yes absolutely . Eyes are what make flies and lures look alive! I can use plain lead eyes on my baited breaths and catch fish but I used to go to the trouble of using oversized alloy eyes that have a flat recessed edge for mounting stick on prismatic eyes. (With some epoxy over the top). Makes me feel more confident at the very least.

[@Mr11november]

Hi Steve I tie a similar fly time is irrelevant if you enjoy the process ,have been doing away with the nylon eyes and pulling some outside fibres together and putting a blob of black nail varnish on them and working it in a bit with a needle on each side ,have to hold fibres till it sets enough then add a touch more to round it off , ...just another way 😊

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Thanks, sounds like an interesting way to do it! One thing about hard nylon for eyes is I think it sometimes has the potential to catch in the fishes mouth and knock the fly out. Would be cool to find a way of doing it with soft material that collapses when the fish bites down on it. The challenge with soft materials I reckon is getting the eyes to stay in the right position though…do you find that with your method they stay in the right place?

[@saratoga1956]

Hi Steve .. that's a great looking fly and very practical tie .. thanks very much for sharing

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Pleasure Steve, thanks mate!

[@adrianschwindt9045]

Thanks for sharing this great pattern Steve, I have had lots of fun trying to replicate, cant wait to try them in the Maribyrnong when conditions are right.

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

No problem mate, hope you catch a few! :)

[@TriFly001]

Only just started targeting bream in the past year or so & every single one has been caught on one of your bream shrimps Steve. I also tie a version which catches carp out here in NW NSW. Next challenge - whiting & bream on surface flies.

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

That’s awesome mate, glad it has brought you some success! Whiting and bream on surface sounds fun, I’ve got the odd one on disco shrimps and cicadas but not really targeted them much that way, best of luck and hope you catch a few. :)

[@kims570]

Great work. Thank you so much.

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Thanks Kim!

[@christurner68]

Hey Peachy, doing a bit of binge watching on your channel. Loving your fly tying. Right at the end when you mentioned the scent answered my question as I was thing this when you started using the sharpi. I was one of those guys who used to fish a lot of tournaments. I was going to ask you dabbing a bit of xfactor on the fly would it effect the charactistic of the fly. Would love to take you to lake Mac in the shallows where you can sight fish the bream tailing. Can’t fly fish yet but looking to learn, hence the binge watching. would love to chase the whitting on fly also. Have to say the Euro style nymphing has got me very interest after watching the trout fishing, especially those small streams where you a closed in by the trees and shrubs.

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Thanks Chris! Yeah there are some people who don't like to use scent because it can affect the action of the fly, I reckon that's probably right for flies with a lot of soft fibres that move a lot. A lot of fly anglers won't use scent out of principle, each to their own I guess. I only use it on these particular bream shrimp flies, I figure that a small shrimp has a hard shell so it doesn't really waft around in the current too much. Bream can be really tough on fly, it seems to be situational though. In Sydney Harbour where I fish it's extremely difficult to get them in the lower harbour without scent, but they are catchable further up the river. I reckon the clearer the water and the less tidal movement or current the harder they get.... Lake Mac sounds fun, I've not fished the lake itself, only the channel at Swansea, would be great to come and fish it some time. There's a really good fly shop up there, BWC Flies. Drop in and see Brett and Cherie, they have lots of good gear but will also point you in the right direction for fly opportunities up that way. And yeah, euro nymphing is great fun and definitely deadly. Thanks for watching mate, appreciate it! :)

[@christurner68]

@@PeachyFlyFishing I have been researching rods, reels and line, what a mine field that is when not knowing anything on fly fishing rods. They are quite an investment. You definitely have one in hand and rod for purpose. I was given a gloomis rod under sponsorship but it still sits in the tube it came in and not even shore what model it is haha! Have to get it out and check it out.

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Nothing wrong with Loomis rods, they are good! But yeah drop in to BWC, they will give you good honest advice about what you need to get started. I'd highly recommend joining a club too, try to get off to a good start with your casting as that affects everything... :)

[@christurner68]

@@PeachyFlyFishing 👍

[@davidball5002]

Hi, great looking fly. Thanks for taking the time to share this. I think using scent for bream is a good idea. What scent have you had the best results with?

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Thanks David! I find that the S Factor scent seems to work really well, I haven’t tried every brand though.

[@HansTeunisse1]

What kind of sense you used for this fly? great tying thanks.

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Thanks Hans! I usually use S-Factor or Sax Scent, I’ve used Gulp too. :)

[@oliewray8357]

If you did 20 fly's and it takes 20min each thats like over 6 hours of tying flies

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Haha, yes true! I'm not the fastest fly tier, I would never succeed as a commercial tier that's for sure! ;)

[@mattward3575]

Hi Steve fairly new to bream on fly and find the Victorian bream particularly finicky in winter which may or may not be water temp related ? Anyway I am not a fly tier at this stage and would like to purchase a few of your bream patterns as to me they are the closest thing to the real thing with the added advantage of picking up sea run brown trout in the same areas. Also open to other shrimp patterns that consider successful? Thanks Matt

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Thanks Matt! Yes bream generally are finicky, they are a tough species to fool. On the really tough days you can try slowing down your retrieve more, longer pauses, longer lighter leaders, and as much stealth as you are able to muster. Sometimes a little scent on the fly can help as well. Sorry but I don't tie commercially, I'm far too slow! BWC Flies has some good shrimp patterns that are available commercially, try him (Brett Clarke) at bwcflies.com.au :)

[@mattward3575]

Cheers I will try Bwc and how light are you going on tippet generally?

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

I like 8lb Shimano Ocea fluorocarbon generally. I fished 6lb for quite a while but lost too many fish to bust offs. :)

[@Jimmy-n6j]

Great looking fly mate! Losing them to snags would hurt considering the time you spend tying them. I would love to swap a few murray cod flies with you some day. imon insta greg wilson. ive recently posted a pic of some flies so if you like id be happy to do a friendly trade. onya mate. love your vids

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

Thanks Greg! Yeah it does hurt to lose them, I tend to go through a few....sure I'm up for a fly swap if you want to. I'm not on Insta, but are you on facebook?

[@Jimmy-n6j]

@@PeachyFlyFishing After chrissy ill tie you up a few mate. I am on facebook but i hardly use it. We will work it out.! Ive just been having a crack at the Peachy Bream Fly. Hopefully the Bemm River bream will like it this january. my facebook has a blue painting front page thingo. 1971. ill try n find you actually and message .onya mate! Love your work!

[@PeachyFlyFishing]

@@Jimmy-n6j Good stuff mate, hope they work out! I've used them on the Southern Black bream down around Tuross and they worked a treat so should be good for Bemm River I imagine. Yep look me up on facebook mate, Steve.Peach.77. :)