Bream Crazy Charlie

[Tony Ong]

This is by far the most effective fly by far for me when fishing for bream. I’ve tried most patterns in the search of a better/more effective fly. At times, the Flyworld worm fly, bead head bms, and hammerhead bms, shrimp flies etc all work. However, when push comes to shove, and fish are a little fussy, I will always retreat to my standard bream crazy charlies. Most times, it’s fishing blind, covering areas where you think that fish will hold.
When wading, my preference is for medium bead chain eyes. 5 weight outfit with a full floating line. 12 feet of leader, and I fish mostly with 6 pounds tippet. This is a really light fly, and is surprisingly snag resistant. Have a look at below image. Bottom two flies are bead chain. Wing material is craft fur. I’m becoming more of a convert to using UV flash in flies in general. UV krystal flash in various colours. Size of hook is #6 or #8.

Fishing out of a boat, we need to consider a couple of other factors. An intermediate line is going to be more versatile. Leader can come back to 9 feet. Depending on how much structure, tippet may be anywhere from 6 pounds to 20 pounds. This is the time where different weight flies come in handy. How fast the boat is moving, how much current, and how deep you need to get the fly down will decide how heavy a fly you need to fish. To me, in this situation, colour is of less importance. Getting the right sink rate is more important here.

Senyo Predator Wrap

On the last blackwood trip, I dug out a heap of material that I had bought a while back. Product looked great, but when used as a wrap as it was intended for, it caused all sort of nightmares. The finished flies looked great, but the wrap caused the fly to constantly foul. I had put this aside ready for the bin, but just never got round to it. What caught my eye this time round was a lot of the range was UV. The barred effect also made the flies pop. Well, length of the material ended up around 100mm. It was long enough to use as flash for bream style charlies. Again wing of fly is mostly craft fur. Senyo Predator Wrap used as a flash material over the top really makes the fly pop. I'm fishing these flies in deeper water, so feel that a littler extra flash helps in this situation.
Below are different variations of charlies I tied up using Senyo Predator wrap. Again, mostly craft fur wing. I’m fishing these flies a little deeper, so I don’t mind a little more flash. Hook size #4 or #2. Various eye sizes. There’s a heap of different styles of eyes. Just pick up different sizes and weights. Take note that there’s both lead and brass eyes. Lead eyes are heavier (think sink faster) and don’t have as much mass. Brass eyes will last longer (lead is a soft material, and prone to snap off the hook).

PS. Don't tell Brian, but this could be the reason I caught one or two more fish over the weekend.

[Arnold Tucker]

Tony

Well written and good pics. I too have tied many many flies over the years and many with No positive results more tan likely to poor selection of materials and sadly technique one would have to admit. But over the years I too seem to return to the bream charlie when things are quiet.
I still try different variants of flies and of late tend to select the more neutral materials but more importantly for me materials that offer natural movement with little need for introduced action as at times with the natural movement this in itself tend to entice the strike. Having said this I have fished along side others using nothing but flashy materials and the catch rate can be the same if not better at times.
Other than that above All I can say is that these fish can be very fickle at times and annoy the crap out of me.

But I still keep on going back for more of the little fin.

Arnold

[Torren]

Loving the bream threads Tony. They are such a fantastic fish that are accessible to everyone and never guarantee you an easy day on the water.
In the past I've had most of my success on BMS style patterns (tied with a dubbing brush as I'm useless with dubbing) and leach flies. Still looking for a decent bend back style leach fly small enough for bream. With some of these flies, I deliberately ignored the traditional approach of 'matching the hatch' and primarily focused on imitating some of the soft plastics that I had success with in my past life. Eg olive grubs. Now that I've got some bream 'on the board' I've broadened my fly selection and the bream Charlie now takes up a fair bit of space in my fly box.
Most of my flies are tied with 30lb fluoro weed guards which bream have no problems crunching if the want the fly.

I'm really interested in hearing what sinking lines you guys are using these days.
After the surface bite has finished I generally run two 6wt outfits. One Rio general purpose salt water with a 9ft clear tip and a Rio in touch camolux for the deeper stuff. This line needs to stay wet or it doesn't shoot very well. Not sure if anyone else has this problem with the camolux.

[Tony Ong]

Hi Torren
I'm using the same intermediate line. Rio In Touch Camolux. Like you mentioned, this line likes to be kept wet. It's a canon of a line when kept wet. For me, this will fish down to 3 meters reasonably well. Any deeper, and you would need almost perfect conditions. ie no wind no current. It's also a matter of how long you have to wait for the fly to get down to depth.
I'm looking at getting a fast sink line to fish 8-10 meter depths. Will probably pick something up after we get out of this lockdown. Something along the lines of 4-8 inches per second sink. We've all seen on the sounder fish stacked up sitting deep. A lot of times, these fish have lock jaw on flies, but guys fishing conventional gear still seem to get some results. My thinking is that with the fast sink lines, and heavier weighted flies, I can get the fly into the hit zone quicker, and keep it there longer to try and entice a bite.
Interested in your thoughts with the weed guards. I haven't fished them a whole lot myself. Do you find that they work?

[John OSullivan]

I have add good success on these colours over the last two months. Trying out different colours, weighted eyes, and hook sizes. All of these flies have been successful. A few weeks back Steve Roberts and I got on to a school of bream in the river that were holding up in a trench on the flats.
Using the top variation we ended up landed about 20 fish. We got lucky on that occasion.
I am enjoying trying different versions. I'm looking forward to trying to find what works as the season changes. I hope we get some Salmon and we are allowed to fish. The bottom two flies I haven't fished yet . With time on my hands at home I got the vise out and copied a pattern.
Good health and good luck to everyone

[daniel horne]

These look fantastic
Has any one tried the old bream at night ?

[Roger Smith]

YES!
Right outside the club rooms.
I had Tony showing me how when I was just a beginner.
I haven't stopped following him around since.

[daniel horne]

Yeah I went to my fave little flat near the club room last night
Think this dark thing works !