Gilthead Bream on the fly!

[FlyGuide]

Hi All,

Out chasing mullet a few days ago at a local mark and ended up taking 3 Gilthead Bream on the fly! Nothing big, around 8-9" in length. Anyone else had any experiences of landing these on the fly?

[Marco]

I don't know if it can have some interest but I caught gilthead breams while casting small Clousers for bass in Sardinia island (Italy) in the Mediterranean. They seldom are aggressive and attack streamers. Often they are casual catches but having the chance to fish regularly where they are abundant (Sardinia would be a good place...) it's possible to really look for them. I would choose a crab (or shrimp) imitation retrieved over sandy bottoms in shallow water.
It's nice to see the interest in swff in the UK!

[smallmouth]

I'm sure we're very interested in anything about SWFF'ng in the Med.

I've flyfished in Skiathos with only limited success, but feel that there was potential to do much better if I'd had more time to experiment. There were a lot of bream and some stripy snapper like fish called Mormyrus?, I wished I'd got some little trout nymphs with me when I observed these fish "sand sifting".

As the Med is somewhere I'm likely to visit quite regularly on holiday, anything that might increase my confidence and reduce the learning curve is very welcome.

[nigelhaywood]

Gilthead, eh? I'm impressed. Encouraging to know they're still about. I had thought the ones you found had disappeared a year or two back (assuming you're not fishing at Salcombe!) Are there any bigger ones around? What about triggers?

May bump into you this summer. I'm back in the motherland for the last couple of weeks of the month.

Nigel

[Marco]

The striped breams (Lithognathus mormyrus) takes flies too. They especially like sand worms. Breams are still secondary targets and this is why we still lack esperience about them. Also it's not easy to find really good places, where they are abundant enought to give us good chances of good presentations. Obviosly most anglers look for predators (bass, bluefish, leerfish, barracuda...) fishing from the the shore so breams can go unnoticed because the right fishing techniques for predators and breams are very different.

[FlyGuide]

Hi Nigel,

You may very well know the mark, it's called Carnsew Pool. I didn't hear of a decent Gilthead Bream last year from this mark but the previous 2 years have seen some large fish. Last year I think the local paper showed a photo of one around 5lbs from this mark - not on the fly though. It's amazing and puzzling why this area attracts Giltheads!

Fished a #6wt with a 8ft 3lb leader. Used a sighter on the leader so the fly was suspended approximately 11" down in 2-3ft of water. Fly was a self-tied dressed maggot pattern on a size 14.

As far as I can work out the Giltheads go in and out with the tide. They travel along the river for about 3/4 of a mile but I have never heard of anyone catching one in the river. The pool has a lot of food available compared to the rest of the area. Also a good mark for mullet and the odd bass.

Robin said that you would be down in a few weeks time so if he can tear himself away from that annexe of his for a few hours we'll have to wet a line somewhere.

[Robin]

The annexe is going badly,this weekend got hijacked by mother,so I failed to resist the temptation to spend what little time i had on the study.
But I shall be fishing after next weekend,(19th),all you have to do is rattle my cage.
R

[smallmouth]

Marco

There are plenty of Bream and Mormyrus on the Skiathos beaches. Next time I go to the Aegean or Med I'll take my #5 rod and some trout sized flies, perhaps Czech style shrimps and some worm patterns.

Only problem is, where would one get a WF5 "Tropical" Floater?

[Gonzo]

I'd overline the rod and put a 6# tropic line on, as these are alot easier to get hold of.

[Marco]

For ultralight saltwater I use my old Sage 9' 4w with a regular floating WF 5 weight and it works well also for small bass and leerfish. My next line for this will be a clear intermediate. These lines are used for stillwater and available in light weight. I think a tropical line is not needed.
Don't leave home a heavier rod when you come to the Med.

[smallmouth]

Gonzo

I've thought about overlining but I'm loath to do it, not sure why, just an unease as I'm not the best caster in the world and apt to have too much of a WF in the air as it is......

Marco

When I was in Skiathos last year, the temperature was topping 30C by 9am, and my line just turned into over cooked spaghetti, becoming impossible to cast. But I suspect a clear intermediate might do better in this respect due to the different core?

Don't worry. I'll still bring my heavier rod. Some of the Bass I saw whilst snorkelling were seriously large, and almost "muscled" my daughter out of the way to get at the small fish she was hand feeding.......

[nigelhaywood]

Hi Flyguide

Normally I'd wince at your naming your swim: but I guess the number likely to identify, or worse, descend on Carnsew is pretty small! I've known about it for a while, but never fished it. Hope to put that right this summer. Any signs of sea trout? I know there are trout in the river, so there must be a chance.

Nigel

[nigelhaywood]

p.s.

Do you really live five miles from Robin? If so, do try to get him out a bit more.

N

[FlyGuide]

Hi Nigel,

Yeah, I did think twice about naming the mark but it is well known down here so I thought I'd risk it, I know of better!

Sea Trout? We're probably at the same point. We both know that the river holds good amounts of brown trout so 'logically' there must be a run of Sea Trout sometime. Yet to suss this out but I have seen the odd one or two anglers fishing the first of the flood at last light for them.

[FlyGuide]

P.S.

Five miles............I'm afraid so!!! ;D