Dawn session catching bream on flies

[FishingFables]

After taking inspiration from @DerekD 's report on a great day catching bream recently, I headed down to my local lagoon this morning at first light.

The water was warm as I waded out onto the sandflats and the bream were active early on. I had a crack with a surface fly I tied myself to imitate a skipping prawn - plenty of strikes but for the life of me I could not hook up! To rub salt into the wound, the lagoon was full of massive sea mullet, and every time I missed a strike on a bream the mullet would start jumping all around me. They were so big I reckon the water level dropped a foot each time one of them jumped.  

In the end I worked out the bream would only hit the fly after it was sitting still for a while - sometimes as much as 10 seconds. The technique that worked for me was to cast as far as I could, then strip the fly hard to make a fair amount of splash to attract any fish nearby, then pause for a decent amount of time and wait for the strike.

I only managed a few bream and dropped plenty but it was a beautiful start to the day - nothing like having a line in the water when the sun comes up.

Here's a short vid of the fly I was using and one of the bream I caught.

Tight lines

Jason

[Rebel]

Top video.

Better luck next time.

Cheers

[bessell1955]

Great to see you fly fishing for Bream, well done! 

[Pickles]

Fly fishing is great fun - especially with flies you tie yourself, haven’t caught a bream on fly, but Kingies certainly give a good account of  themselves, so Iguess bream would also.

[big Neil]

Another great presentation of your venture into the world of Bream on Fly Jason. A pleasure to read your comprehensive recount of events. Cheers, bn

[noelm]

There's something about fly fishing hey? Nothing quite like the still, cool early morning air, seeing fish up on a sand flat and wading around, all while everyone else is in bed, and before the "tourist" fisherpeople get out and about. I did almost exactly the same yesterday, the tide was just a bit too low, but still plenty of fish around, I didn't catch one thing, but in a strange way, it was a great morning fishing.....go figure.

[DerekD]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for posting that. I really enjoyed watching it (but way too short - you'll have to go out again to get some more video - hint, hint).

Have you tried blackfish on fly. Something to enjoy in the cooler months when the other species get a little harder to catch.

Regards,

Derek

[jenno64]

That looks like fun and I bet it's addictive. Nice work!

[FishingFables]

On 4/16/2023 at 7:01 AM, noelm said:

There's something about fly fishing hey? Nothing quite like the still, cool early morning air, seeing fish up on a sand flat and wading around, all while everyone else is in bed, and before the "tourist" fisherpeople get out and about. I did almost exactly the same yesterday, the tide was just a bit too low, but still plenty of fish around, I didn't catch one thing, but in a strange way, it was a great morning fishing.....go figure.

I love being out there wading the flats with a fly rod at first light - I feel like I have the whole world to myself for a couple of golden hours before the rest of the world wakes up.

On a separate note, I see you're from Shellharbour. I used to live there as a teenager and it's where my passion for fishing began - chasing blackfish off the rocks around the Barrack Point area. Beautiful part of the world.

[FishingFables]

On 4/16/2023 at 7:21 AM, DerekD said:

Hi Jason,

Thanks for posting that. I really enjoyed watching it (but way too short - you'll have to go out again to get some more video - hint, hint).

Have you tried blackfish on fly. Something to enjoy in the cooler months when the other species get a little harder to catch.

Regards,

Derek

Hi Derek,

I've been rockfishing for blackfish with my trusty old Alvey reel and ancient fiberglass rod for 30 years - seeing that float go down gives me just as much of a thrill now as it did when I was a young bloke. Never loses its appeal.

Last year I caught my first blackfish on fly from a breakwall up at Nelson Bay. This year I'm gearing up to give it a red hot go with the fly rod off the rocks around the northern beaches and also at Narrabeen Lake where I've had success before float fishing from my canoe.

Here's a short vid of my first blackfish on fly from last year...

Cheers

Jason

[noelm]

3 hours ago, FishingFables said:

I love being out there wading the flats with a fly rod at first light - I feel like I have the whole world to myself for a couple of golden hours before the rest of the world wakes up.

On a separate note, I see you're from Shellharbour. I used to live there as a teenager and it's where my passion for fishing began - chasing blackfish off the rocks around the Barrack Point area. Beautiful part of the world.

I live at Barrack Point, have done for my entire life, in Headland Parade. I do all my flyfishing in Little Lake or the rocks at the entrance, with the occasional "trip" to Lake Illawarra

Edited April 17, 2023 by noelm

[DerekD]

Hi again @FishingFables

How did you sort out the strike indicator for the weed fly?

My solution was to make my own with an o-ring, some strike indicator yarn and some braid to whip it. The final design allows me to slide it up and down the thicker part of the leader and to remove it at the end of the session for re-use again and again and again. I use some floatant on the indicator yarn to keep it dry and floatin.

A bit more about it here.

I went into a bit more detail about it in the latter half of this article.

 

Regards,

Derek

[FishingFables]

2 hours ago, noelm said:

I live at Barrack Point, have done for my entire life, in Headland Parade. I do all my flyfishing in Little Lake or the rocks at the entrance, with the occasional "trip" to Lake Illawarra

Wow, talk about a small world! I remember at Barrack Pt there was a large flat rock ledge where all the 'old salt' blackfish anglers used to fish. I learned a lot from watching those guys - must be thirty years ago now. 

[FishingFables]

46 minutes ago, DerekD said:

Hi again @FishingFables

How did you sort out the strike indicator for the weed fly?

My solution was to make my own with an o-ring, some strike indicator yarn and some braid to whip it. The final design allows me to slide it up and down the thicker part of the leader and to remove it at the end of the session for re-use again and again and again. I use some floatant on the indicator yarn to keep it dry and floatin.

A bit more about it here.

I went into a bit more detail about it in the latter half of this article.

 

Regards,

Derek

Hi Derek,

Thanks for sharing that information - I found it really informative. Heck of a blackfish you caught there - must have been fun on a fly rod.

I've been using the small plastic floats in the pic attached. Might be overkill for quieter waters but I've found them to be effective when fishing off ocean rocks and breakwalls where you're dealing with current and chop. They are visible and buoyant. You simply loop the line through the float and then you can slip it up or down to adjust the depth. You can reuse them too.

Cheers

Jason

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by FishingFables

[noelm]

42 minutes ago, FishingFables said:

Wow, talk about a small world! I remember at Barrack Pt there was a large flat rock ledge where all the 'old salt' blackfish anglers used to fish. I learned a lot from watching those guys - must be thirty years ago now. 

Yep it's actually called "flat rock" and still fishes well for Blackfish! I Fish Little Lake, just in from the entrance for Whiting, and right at the entrance for Whiting, Mullet and Blackfish on bread flies, I'm not very good at fly fishing, but I like doing it. I live right at the entrance to Little Lake across from "Browns Bay" surfed, fished and dived here all my life.

[noelm]

Where I fly fish, there is an "expert" fishes there all the time (he has taught me plenty) and he uses a little orange kind of "fluffy ball" as a bite indicator, next time I see him I will have a look at them close up and how he attaches them to the line. I am not that fancy and just do the best I can......but I still love it!