Bream – Gangsters of the Estuary — James Sinnamon

This lovely bream came to a crab pattern. Gangsters of the Estuary

Southern black bream can be fished for all year. They are plentiful, easy to target, but not easy to catch. James Sinnamon shares a few ideas.

Bream were the first species I endeavoured to catch on fly, and I would be glad to have them as one of the last. In my eyes bream are a fantastic fly target, from snags to open sandy flats and everything in-between, they are like the ‘gangsters of the estuaries’, particularly here in Tasmania. I’ve watched a school of bream react insanely to a well-presented fly, racing over to beat it up with shear aggression… They come in hot, sit for a sec or two and bam, they absolutely crunch it!

Most of the bream fishing I’ve done in Tas has been north and east coast estuaries, with my favourite place to chase them being flats and shallow water snags, places where they can be sight fished. Bream are a fantastic fight for their size, commonly going into my backing when fishing on the flats with light leader. Id highly recommend it to anyone who’d like to chase a devil of a fighting fish that knows its defeated when you hold it in your hands. Honestly one

A kayak is a great way to access waters. www.tasfish.com - Get the knowledge - Get the fish.

of the tamest fish to hold, despite the few spines, they barley flinch a muscle until you put them back in the water to where they shoot off. In my eyes, the black bream is one of Australia’s best respected native sports fish.

Depending on the estuary system, I find the tide usually has a lot to do with where I find the bream. In systems with vast areas of shallow flats and a large tidal range, I tend to find the bulk of bream hanging around some sort of deep water and or structure on and around the low tide. Although not long after the tides starts to push in, I have found large numbers of bream slowly pushing onto the flats feeding as they go. By the time the tide reaches its peak, I have found the bream way up the back of the flats in large schools. On one glassed off winter afternoon I had a high tide at about 5 pm just before dark, to where I was aimlessly drifting in my canoe with the tide over a flat looking for fish. 2 hours went by with a few fish spooking at the canoe as I drifted by. It was a patchy cloudy afternoon with the low winter sun angle; all that combined did not make for great polaroiding. By 4 pm I ended up poling the canoe way up the back of the flat into very skinny water.

Upon arriving towards the top of the flat I instantly spooked a few bream that then went on to spook what looked like a school of 200 odd bream, I kid you not! Ongoing from this, as a result of the glassed off spooky conditions where the fly line hitting the water was enough to spook fish from way off. I decided to sit and see if I couldn’t watch the fish feed for a bit while trying to take some pictures.

After a short while I noticed something really cool… of the back of a snag I was watching a small shrimp dart to the surface with a bream hot behind. The shrimp was skipping away as they do while the bream was trying to get it. While this was happening, I noticed that the bream didn’t look like it was actually trying to eat the shrimp yet it looked like the fish was trying to stun the shrimp with its tail, it eventually hit the shrimp stunning it in the water, and while the shrimp was slowly sinking stunned, the bream swam up and ate it oh so elegantly, almost like a trout would! Normally when I am fishing the flats, I like to wade. I feel it is easier to present a fly well to a spooky bream. Although, this particular spot had soft mud well and truly over the knees and it was winter. It was no fun wading! In this situation I used a homemade stakeout pole to stick in the mud and hold me in place, so I was able to set up a trap and wait for the fish to come past me. Other times I like to use a drogue/see anchor to create a slow drift. There is a known benefit in spotting fish the higher you are from the water, like in a boat, kayak or on a paddle board etc. However, the fish also tend to see you a lot easier, especially spooky bream in shallow water. I often find myself trying to keep very low when I am in the canoe casting at bream, as in relation to when I can wade, I usually find myself catching bream with the leader in the rod tip.

If you like a challenge, try fishing solo out of a canoe in the wind and tide with a fly rod, while trying not to make noise and spook fish. ‘It is good fun!’ Although, it is worthwhile when you hook one in the canoe, oh my it is awesome. Especially on the flats! For some reason the bream in shallow water put on the turbo back to deep water or a snag when hooked. This in the canoe is a whole stack of fun, getting dragged around left, right and centre. However, when fishing in the snags in the canoe it is a different story… you hook them and then they pull you straight back into the snag with them.

Flies and presentations

The black bream in Tasmania dominate the estuaries, I’ve seen them eat everything from small shrimp to large baitfish. Most of the time I find bream are not very picky. I’d say one of the most important things to consider is how to present that fly well, like with a baitfish pattern fly, fish it like an injured baitfish would act etc.

On the odd occasion, I have had bream dial in on one prey source and will not eat or even look at the fly if it doesn’t somewhat resemble what they are looking for. For instance, I had a day on a flat where the bream where properly nosing the ground with tails straight up, stuff dreams are made off! They would continue to refuse my minnow presentations, even when

bounced in front of their nose. Quickly changing to a heavy weighted crab fly and scratching it through the sand, I was rewarded with some very aggressive bream, working as well as I image dynamite would, it was deadly. Further down the road I ended up hooking one of the bream deep in the gills, so I decided to take it for dinner and look at what it had been eating. I was surprised to see the stomach full of bivalve shells and grab bits. I tend to generally fish flies in relation to what bait is primarily around at that time of year and the given type of habitat. In winter, I fish a lot of baitfish profiles and in summer, I fish more shrimp and crab presentations. The size of flies I use are usually quite large, ranging from a size 2 to a 2/0. I would very rarely fish a fly under a size 2. Bream have hard mouths and have no worries eating a 3-5-inch baitfish. They have also been known to eat oysters and break open mussels, it is for A kayak is fabulous way to chase bream. these reasons that I like to fish a heavy and large gauge hook. One of my favourite hooks to use for tying most bream flies is a Gamakastu SLHRS in size 2 and 1/0. Gear I use is anything from a 5 or 6wt 9 ft trout rod for the flats to a 7 or 8wt 9ft for strong winds and heave structure, paired with a weight forward floating line. You can get away with a sinking fly-line and in some cases a sinking line can be quite handy. Generally running 6 – 12lb leader depending on what terrain and water clarity I am fishing. Overall, I think fly fishing for bream is relatively easy if you can launch a decent cast accurately and even if you can’t. If you remember what I personally and can surely be backed by many other bream fishos, think is the most important thing to do when fishing for bream, and that is to PAUSE! Bream love the pause! James Sinnamon Musselroe Bay produces some big bream on fly.