August FOTM - The BMS

[Stephen Bradbury]

Sorry for the lateness guy’s the August Fly of the month is a little Bream fly created by legendary fly tyer Muz Wilson called the Bullen Merri Special, but you may know it by its common name the ‘BMS’. Brian did a demonstration tie of this fly at our August meeting and I think it deserves a place in the fly box of any serious river and estuary fly fisher. The BMS can be tied in a few different variations and many colour combinations. This fly pattern is used by a lot of us here in southern WA for targeting Black Bream especially the PA BMS (pink arsed) version. Originally tied with a green glass bead head, red thread hot spot, an all green BMS blends dubbing body and tail with a gold mylar body rib, it is now commonly used for Bream in both the original version and the popular hammerhead version (beadchain or small dumbbell eyes instead of the bead, rides hook point up). Under water this fly imitates a small baitfish with the dubbing body forming a translucent halo around the mylar rib providing the flash of a baitfish’s lateral line. The BMS generally lands lightly and is able to be retrieved very slowly lessening the chances of spooking the usually wary Black bream. Fish species you can catch with the BMS include Black Bream, Yellowfin Bream, Grunter, herring, small Kahawai (Aus Salmon), Skippy, Yellowfin Whiting and even Trout (white version with clear bead, smelt representation).
Recipe – in order of tying
Hook – size 6# or 8# Mustad Big Game or S/S O’shaughnessy style hook.
Thread - 210 Denier Flat waxed nylon in olive colour for original version or black for Hammerhead version or white for smelt version.
Bead head or beadchain/dumbbell eyes – green or clear glass bead for original version or medium gold beadchain or small brass dumbbell eyes for Hammerhead version.
Tail - 1 x small tuft of BMS blends dubbing, approx ½ the hook length (tapered) tied in at the start of the hook bend, olive or chartreuse for original version or bright pink for PA BMS version.
Body rib/flash - 1 x strand of gold mylar for original & Hammerhead version, silver for smelt version or pearl if you prefer, tied in at the base of the tail facing backwards, then wound over the dubbed body before the BMS fibres are teased/brushed out.
Body - small pinches of BMS dubbing, usually olive, chartreuse or white, dubbed (twisted) onto the tying thread and wound back up the hook shank to the bead head or eyes. Then after the mylar rib has been wrapped forward on top and tied off the dubbing fibres are teased out with a bodkin, brush or preferably a piece of Velcro.
Hot Spot - red thread tied in at the end to make the hot spot behind the bead head on the original version.
Normally tied onto a 5 – 6lb fluorocarbon tippet with a small loop knot and retrieved erratically with short bumpy strips and plenty of long pauses (Bream usually strike on the pause).


Do yourself a favour and put half a dozen in different colours and weights into your Bream fly box now !

[Stephen Bradbury]

More pics

[Torren]

Nice work Steve.
Certainly one of my favourite bream flies.