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Matching the hatch i.e. what bream and bass (or any fish species for that matter eat) is a fundamental influence on what gear, set up and bait to use to catch a particular species.

What do bream and bass eat.

Bream and bass are both foragers and predators. They forage around the bottom and other structures, looking for food and also take advantage of structures and wait for food to come to them.

They both have a varied diets including lifeforms they share their environment with such as small fish and terrestrials that find they way into or onto their habitat.

For bream that includes shrimp and prawns, smaller fish, crabs and other crustaceans such as oysters and different types of worms and plant growth.

It's not much different for bass and for them it includes, smaller fish, tadpoles, shrimp, freshwater crustaceans, worms, some vegetation and nymphs and emergers which live in water as part of their lifecycle and of course terrestrial insects that find their way onto or into the water such as beetles, cicadas, hoppers and crickets and small animals such as lizards and ground worms.

Both bream and bass are gregarious and as such tend to be in group of similar size fish and both like to scrounge and hunt in areas where there is some sort of structure or habitats that favors the type of food they target.

With so much in common it's not surprising that there is a wide range of fishing gear and set ups that can be used to target both bream and bass. I have set out below my gear preferences and set up preference for when I am targeting bream and bass.

For all my bream and bass fly outfits and my dark side eggbeater and overhead combos I always start with just under a rod length of leader. I like that length of leader because I tie all my bream and bass baits on with loop knots and that means I can comfortably use a third of the lead tying on lure changes and still have a good functional length of leader left to fish with.

On the one hand there is fly fishing gear and set ups and on the other side there is the group of gear and set ups fly fishers often call the dark side.

Fly fishing gear

If I am only fishing for bream or bass I use much lighter gear than my normal fly gear and set up.

My bream and bass specific fly gear is pretty straight forward and is basically a 6 to 9 feet long 6 weight fly rods with a medium tip and with a modular fly reel. This is the same as my favourite type of freshwater trout fly fishing combos.

I carry and use floating, clear intermediate and sinking lines for my bream and bass fly fishing and that is why I use modular reels. They make changing lines so much easier. All my fly lines have loops at the business end. Some are the loops that came on the lines when they were unpacked other have "nail loop knots" that I developed myself.

My leader set up is much shorter than used when fishing for fresh water trout and my bream and bass leaders are just short of the length of my fly rod. For bream and bass my preference of leader is 5lb to 7lb if only fishing for bream or bass but if your fishing for other scroungers (such as grunter, fingermark and mangrove jack) as well I suggest yo may want to go as high as 20lb depending on which specie of scrounger your most likely to catch. In any case my leader is connected with a loop to loop connection to the fly line.

I always tie my flies on at the business end with a Lefty's loop Knot that allows the fly plenty of movement of the fly.

Using the above set up I still fly fish as often as I can and have caught 38 different species of salt water fish on fly.

When I can't fly fish because of the strong winds and fast tidal flows which is more often than not, I have reverted to fishing with various types and weights of lures. Basically by having a weight on the end of your line and a thin leader and thin backing you can overcome to a large degree the problems that make fly fishing not possible.

There are a couple of different types of combos that I use to that and, even though I go back to fly fishing when I can, I now also fish on the dark side fishing with lures and lure fishing has become nearly as enjoyable for me as catching fish on fly. On top of that I have started making some soft plastics and repairing vibes and that has also made the dark side more interesting and enjoyable,

Spin (eggbeater)combinations.

Prior to getting involved in fly fishing in the late 70s early 80s my favorite form of fishing was fishing for bream with lures. Lures were quite different back then and I still have a few tucked away for sentimental reasons.

I only fished eggbeater combinations back then but when I moved across to fish on fly most of my eggbeater combinations were given away to mates.

I did however keep a couple of eggbeater combos.

The first is a Shimano Steve Starling Sella spin 66. It is still a great rod and coupled with a 2500 Stradic C14+ reel it remains one of my two goto combos when I target bream and bass. The reel, backing and leader material have obviously been updated and these days the reel is loaded with 14lb braid and that is connected at the business end to a rod length leader of 9lb fluorocarbon with a surgeons knot. That is the heavier of my two bream combos and it comfortably casts a wide range of small, hard body, soft plastic and vibe type lures.

The second bream and bass combination rely on is lighter. The rod is 6'2" long and is a Jervis Walker River King.The 2500 reel is a Shimano Solstace FI. The backing is 10lb braid which is connected with a surgeons knot to the rod length 6lb fluorocarbon leader. This lighter of my two eggbeater combos and is very handy when bream or bass area bit finicky and capable of casting my lightest of bream and bass lures.

Overhead/baitcaster combinations.

The advantage of bait caster combos is more accurate casting and the ability to flick baits into locations where eggbeaters casts can't reach. With that in mind I have two overhead/baitcaster set ups for my bream and bass fishing.

The heaviest is a Samaki ZIUG Extreme V@ TELE BM. This rod has a telescopic butt section an can be fished at a 6' to 7' length. The reel is a Shimano 100HG with a 3/16 to 1/2 oz cast weight capacity and is loaded with 12lb Power Powerpro braid which is connected to a rod length 9lb hydrocarbon leader with a surgeons knot.

My second overhead/baitcaster combo is based on a 6" 8" Samaki SC68118 ML rod with a Shimano 100PG C-2 V3 reel. That has a 1/8 to 3/8 cast weight capacity and is loaded with 10lb Power Powerpro braid which is connected to a rod length 9lb hydrocarbon leader with a surgeons knot.

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