The
Black Bream Puff
By Richard
Carter
The Black Bream Puff is a fly
developed while guiding in SE Queensland, wish I was still doing
it, instead of selling my soul and sanity to Y2K computer work.
The weekend after the first really
cold front moving through in June of each year sees the start
of a run of large bream moving in the river systems attached
to Moreton Bay that lasts for quite a few months. The local waterway
I mainly fished is very dirty due to the large movements of water
each day with tides of up 6 to 8+ feet of water four times a
day, so I found a dark fly was best. At the turn of the tide
and incoming tides the water is a little clearer, so a fly with
a some in built action is also warranted, so marabou would have
to be include in the pattern design.
The Black Bream Puff pattern
was developed to target these large bream in this dirty water.
Studying bream and their eating habits in an aquarium produced
a couple of theories. Bream, most times, hit their prey just
behind the eyes, so the a short shank patterned hook would only
be required with the fly designed to have the hook point just
behind the eyes of the pattern. When in a group or school they
bite first and ask questions later, because if they don't one
of their brethren will and they would of miss a chance of a meal.
At this time of year these particular fish were in large groups
migrating to spawning areas. They are also ultra aggressive due
to their imminent breeding rituals thus reducing their shyness
and selectivity. So as long as the fish are there in numbers
only a few basic features of a food source would be required
in a fly, not a 'match the hatch' type saltwater fly.
I mainly use the O'Shaunessy style Stainless hook of Mustad for
this pattern, 34007 or the recent additions to my fly box the
Tiemco 800s and 811s series of hooks. Bream and its cousin species
crush oysters, mussels, crabs and other hard shell or carapace
food sources for survival. So using a light gauge wire hook would
be useless. I have seen the hook point of a light gauge hook
resting on the fly body after being crushed during a brief tussle
with a large bream. So stick to the heavy gauge hooks, though
they do increase weight of the fly, thus the sink rate. While
remembering most of your bream will be hanging out close to underwater
substructure anyway, so the extra weight of the heavy gauge hook
shouldn't be an issue more of an asset.
The main materials of the fly
are the body material of wide Swannundaze, beadchain eyes and
the tail material of marabou. The Swannundaze is a little hard
to find in the wide style, depending on how clued up on fly fishing
your local tackle store is. You could cut up some thick plastic
sheeting at a pinch. Even using thick heavy weight mono if that
is all you have. The advantage of the Swannundaze is it has a
flat side and a curved side, helping to form a segmented body
with ease.
The marabou you are after for
this fly is the thick fluffy stuff, not the long pin feather
type. Though it would work I have found better results with the
ultra fluffy marabou. When using smaller sized hooks, I use chickabou
or the fluff from the bottom of poor quality wide and webby saddle
hackles.
The Black Bream Puff has proven
itself on saltwater species such as bream, mangrove jack and
trevally species. In the smaller sizes and lighter colourings
whiting have also fallen to this imitation. My children have
used size 8 versions of the fly to catch themselves bucketloads
(if we had kept them of course) of Tommy Ruffs, Salmon trout,
Yakkas or yellowtail scad and other large baitfish species. A
favourite fly fishing method for my children is to place some
old pillies in a fine mesh whiting scaler bag, to be shaken in
the water occasionally. Then to cast the fly into the berley
trail (or should I say heave, though they are getting better
with fly casting the more they practice). They would be soon
onto fish for an hour or two of fun and mayhem with the local
baitfish and juvenile sportfish species until the berley runs
out. When a big bream turned up in the berley trail once, my
youngest (Bradley, 4 at the time) almost overbalanced into the
water so unexpected was the aggressive take of the fly and the
forceful run back to its lair. He still remembers losing that
fish and is always keen to have another go to make amends.
The Black Bream Puff can be tied
in a variety of sizes and colours to suit the water clarity or
brightness of the day. The most of materials to make the fly
are readily available, the Swannundaze being the only thing I
have found hard to get in Australia, ask around for it. The marabou
can be acquired from Lincraft and Spotlight stores for five or
six dollars a large packet, but the quality is not always as
good as the fly store bought marabou. The bead chain eyes can
be acquired from any hardware store at three to four dollars
a meter, though they only usually stock the large size. So if
you want small or medium bead chain for smaller versions pop
into the local fly shop. The small beadchain banks have attached
to their pens is great for flies smaller than size 8's, but remember
stealing is an offence and I never told you about it. While at
the fly shop get your Krystalflash in the colour required or
don't have already.
Materials List
Thread : 6/0 to 3/0 Black Uni-Thread.
Hook : Mustard 34007, Tiemco 800s or 811s - sizes 6 -2.
Feelers : Black marabou.
Antennae : A few strands of peacock Krystalflash.
Eyes : Silver/gold bead chain - small or medium.
Body : Black Nymph Rib or Swannundaze (wide).
Tying Sequence
1) Place hook in vice and lay down a bed of thread. Starting
at hook eye and advancing to hook bend.
2) Cut a clump of marabou that is as long as the hook shank.
3) Holding the clump of marabou between thumb and pointer finger.
Then press onto hook shank while still holding with thumb and
finger. Just past the start of the hook bend. Take thread up
and pinch between you thumb and finger as in the image above.
Pull down loosely between your finger and hook shank. Once bobbin
is below hook shank, tighten thread, while still holding marabou
against hook shank. Repeat this two or three times. Remove your
thumb and finger then wrap a few more times to securely firmly.
You could add a drop of head cement or super glue for added durability.
When you get the hang of this tying in method the material should
stay there with one such wrap before securing in.
4) Cut some Krystalflash 2.5 to 3 times the length of your hook,
about 7 -12 pieces. Tie in at hook bend with the end of the Krystalflash
overhanging past the end of the marabou.
5) Hold the other end of Krystalflash out of the way with some
hackle pliers.
6) Place one bead of your length of beadchain over shank and
tie it in with a couple of cross wraps then cut off the pair
of beads from the length of beadchain to form the eyes. This
method is an easier way of handle beadchain eyes then cutting
them into pairs before tying in.
7) Finishing wrapping the eyes into place. You could add a drop
of head cement or super glue for added durability.
8) Advance thread to hook eye, Tie in Swannundaze at the hook
eye, laying it along the top of the hook shank with the excess
hanging over the eyes. This will later help build a thicker body.
9) Wrap your thread over the Swannundaze towards the beadchain
eyes then wrap thread back to hook eye. Binding the Swannundaze
securely to the hook shaft. Ensure the Swannundaze stays on top
of the hook shank.
10) Wrap Swannundaze around hook shank, working back towards
the hook eye, careful to keep wraps close together. Tie off at
hook eye. Trim excess Swannundaze.
11) Twist Krystalflash into a rope. Pull down Krystalflash tightly
along hook shank, tie off at hook eye, Tie off and trim thread.
12) Trim Krystalflash a hook eye width past end of hook eye.
Add a light brush of nail polish or head cement along Krystalflash
to finish off fly.
This fly can be tied in many
colour combinations as there are colours. Chartreuse and yellow,
all pink, blues, greens, olive and brown to tan. A version with
white marabou, pearl Krystalflash, silver beadchain and clear
Swannundaze works well in really clear water and on bright days.
All these variations of the basic pattern have lots of suggestive
movement and a good action on retrieval. Vary eye size and type
to change sink rates.
For more of a imitative prawn
pattern - use a long shank hook and tie in a cock hackle prior
to wrapping the Swannundaze. After wrapping the Swannundaze and
prior to finishing off the Krystalflash, palmer the cock hackle
placing the feather shaft in between the wraps of Swannundaze
and trim one side of the fly of hackle barbels to form legs along
one side of the body. Note you will need one of those long genetic
saddle hackles.
Finished Patterns
Black
Bream Puff - Narrow Rib - Black narrow rib version.
White Prawn
Variation - White Prawn variation.
Chartreuse version
- Chartreuse version.
Pink Size 8 - Pink version.
Fishing Notes
Target typical bream haunts - oyster leases, rock outcrops and
bridges pylons. Due to the low light conditions and or the poor
water clarity when the dark variant is used, I tend to minimise
complexity of leader set-up to just a 2m - 2.5m length of 4 kilo
trace material like Jinkai between flyline and fly. At times
you need to point the rod at the fish and lock up on them to
stop them reaching the safety of structure and cutting you off,
only this sort of leader will do that for you. A short strip,
pause, short strip, pause is standard retrieval method I use
most times after allowing the fly to sink to the desired depth.
Faster strips will work too but I like to keep it in the strike
zone as long as possible by short strips with pauses in between.
Using plastic bead eyes can also help keep the fly in the strike
zone longer giving it an almost neutral buoyancy. The Black Bream
puff is a generalist pattern, but can be suggestive on standard
retrieval method of prawns. While on faster retrieves, remote
suggestions of a baitfish come to mind. Mostly it just looks
too good to resist, so they bite first and ask questions later.
Copyright ©1999
Richard Carter
