Last week I posted a fishing report for my after dinner fun. I justifibly got kidded for not having photos to go with the “story”. I have never posted a photo of fish on line, mainly because I never bring a camera with me, but also because I am “photographically challenged” both in front of and behind the camera. I got to go out for about an hour or so this evening and caught about 8 or nine nice bream. I only took a few photos since they all looked pretty much the same and I didn’t get any really big ones. Anyway, I thought I share some photos of the kind of bream that live in the lake I live on.
Jim,
Nice pics!
Anymore, my camera is a required piece of gear. Has been ever since I got the Pentax WP in 2006. My fishin’ buddy yells at me for not taking multiple pics of the lunker gills. He says I’m too anxious to get 'em back in the water & I just tell him I’ll take multiple pics the NEXT time I catch 'em.
Mike
My go-to bream fly in the spring and summer is an all black leech pattern. These were all caught on the same fly. I also caught a 16 inch bass that I thought was a smaller bream since he didn’t fight as hard.
Hook: Size 10 2XL
Tail: black marabou
Body: black mohair yarn
Underbody: 6 or 7 wraps of lead wire
Thread: Black
Quite possibly the easiest fly to tie there is. I even had my fice year old grandson tying them up. I believe that this fly will probably catch any freshwater fish you can get it in front of.
Good gills. I got a Polaroid waterproof camera real cheap on clearance. It works under water but doesn’t float so I bought a key float for it in case I drop the camera. It takes great pictures, and I don’t have to worry about my expensive Olympus.
Jim,
Thanks for the bream pictures! They are biggins. I have a couple of questions about the leech. Is Mohair yarn something you have to buy in a fly shop or catolog? I am hoping you can buy it anywhere that sells yarn. What is the difference between using lead wraps and a bead head?
You got me started on leeches a couple of years ago. It has been my most productive fly this spring. Thanks, Tom
I’ll second your recommendation on the black leech. It has been a very good pattern for me also. I have caught bream, bass, catfish, walleye and black perch on it. Great fly. I usually make the tail on mine out of leech yarn by twisting it and letting it furl and then tying it in. Then take the rest of the leech yarn and palmer it up the hook shank. I usually put 7 to 8 wraps of .025 lead wire as an underbody and cover it with black Punch Yarn just to give the fly more body. I whip finish the fly and then restart orange thread at the eye and do another whip finish so the fly will have an orange head. I have had good luck with the color orange on a lot of my flies. I use a #8 hook that is 2X heavy and 1X long. Give it a good brushing to make it very spikey and go fishing.
Good looking bream and nice size. My last outing produced several that were 9" to 10". Lots of fun and very good table fare.
Those are some sweet lookin’ slabs. Love the deep purple in them! One of my best flys for bream is a #10 bugger with a peacock herl rope body and brown marabou tail and brown hackle. I also like to do popper/dropper with a simple hares’ ear soft hackle or a red arse soft hackle dropped about 18" below a small hard popper or slider. Of course ther are hair bugs, spiders, etc., etc… Bream are too much fun!!!
They are plain old native gills. It’s just that they live in a mature, healthy lake that gets minimal fishing pressure, especially for bream. Their dark coloration is mainly the result of their diet and the fact that they live in the shade under overhangin trees/bushes. The bream I catch out in the sunny areas of the lake are much brighter golden and green but they tend to be quite a bit smaller as well. It think the big fish have their pick of places to live much like bass.
Thanks for the pictures, very nice looking fish, and thanks for posting the pattern. I have read that very old bluegills tend to get very dark color, with quite a bit of black or purple in them.
Jim, its probably a good thing you weren’t catching the “Big Ones”!! They would have probably drug the boat under, a la “Jaws”.
I never doubted your veracity, but imagining bream that size, and seeing them are 2 different things!
btw, a black mohair leech is a great pattern. There is a version that was shown to me by Carl Richards (the Selective Trout guy) that he used extensively when fishing for trout. He called it a Chicago leech. I don’t have a picture handy, but here is someone else’s website that does have some photos - http://www.creeksideanglers.org/item2.htm
