First attempt at disco shrimps

[Rohan]

Pretty happy with this first attempt, few things i've noted to improve next time around.

[peter birch]

Looks good Rohan,got to try tie them myself.

[Adam]

My first few I tied I learn't more wasn't more. I dressed them a little heavy and the foam didn't float the boat...

Adam

[Rohan]

Yeah, Less is usually more, will have to give them a swim to see, but i have cut the main hook points off which should lighten them up a bit. I will tie the underbody thicker next time as the foam body pulls down to skinny otherwise such as on these...the again, i'll see how they work first.

[Stephen Bradbury]

Nice Rohan, I agree less is usually more in fly tying, if only I could get my head around that when I'm actually tying ! I also found the other weekend in the Hay river, that some of the Disco's I tied up using the 'soft' 3mm foam wouldn't pop effectively like the traditional ones made from the denser/harder 3mm foam (closed cell foam) ?

[Brad Yates]

Nice work. I try keep them sparser and use synthetics on most of them, but have tied some really good ones with fur clipped from a red fox tail.

[Tony Ong]

Been a while since we started fishing with Disco Shrimps for bream. A lot of tweaking has occurred over the last 5 years.
Some things to note.
We went from 2mm fly foam to 3mm fly foam. I've started glueing 2 x2mm foam together. Floats better and looks cool.
Uv materials is CRITICAL. UV rubber legs, UV Polar Chenille (wrapped around body), UV Krystal flash (feelers).
A few of us have gone across to tying the fly on shanks, rather than hooks. I've settled on Fish Skull 35mm shanks.
I also use a small swivel on the front of the fly. Stops line twist, as the fly tend to spin in the air, no matter how well you square the front of the fly.
10mm sequin is about the right size for flies this size. I had all sorts of troubles finding 10mm sequin. Eventually found a lifetime supply of them on ebay.
Hooks. Two stinger hooks, tied in with some jigging assist cord. Lots of options here. Daiichi 1120 #10 and TMC2457 #10. Note these are heavy versions of scud style hooks. Gamakatsu B10s #10 are another option. All three are sticky sharp. Recently, I've started using TMC784 #10. These are a heavy gauge hook. I'm using these hooks, as we're casting into some nasty country, and we're starting to fish heavier tippets to try and pull that monster bream out of heavy cover. The disadvantage is may miss a few of the smaller fish, as the wire is thicker.
Some images of Disco's that I've been fishing this last summer.

[Tony Ong]

Couple more pics.

[Hirdy]

They look pretty funky Tony. Love that shot of the fly in action, too.

[Dave Bailey]

Started reading this thread from the beginning and when I saw Steve’s comment about the fishing the Hay last week I thought he had gone rogue and broken social distancing rules...until I checked the post dates

I don’t do any where near as much top water bream fishing as you Tony, but I am not convinced (yet at least) that UV is always better. The last trip to Albany Steve and I did (pre-lockdown ) it seemed flies without UV were getting more hits if anything. Might have been a one off I guess?