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kimjensen

Bead heads.

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Hi.

 

 

Do you prefer your nymphs to have a bigger, smaller or same size bead as the thorax of the fly? What do you think give the best profile?

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My own preference is for NO bead at all. I do tie and fish bead heads, and when I tie them, I use the smallest bead that will fit the hook. If I want more weight, I will add some wire. I sometimes make "bead heads" simply by wrapping a few extra turns of copper wire to the head.

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i have no preference. whatever works is ok with me

 

i dont pick bead size based on a variable size of thorax.

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I haven't caught anything on the bead heads i tied. I was using a slightly larger bead, gold, and a simple pattern. So far, nothing has ever hit it. I think it's because most of the areas I fish have enough silt to bury the bead once it hits bottom.

So, like Utyer, I prefer no bead. I do use a lot of bead chain eyes, though.

 

I have been hit in the back of my head with the weight of the bead being an unexpected casting problem. Another reason I don't tie overly heavy flies any more.

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On smaller patters like midges or SOS I like to exaggerate the bead a little.

 

16's and up, proportionate to the rest of the fly.

 

Why? I have no idea.

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About the size of the thorax and usually in black. When tying I like bead heads because I'm a beginner and it's easier to use a bead.

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I have been hit in the back of my head with the weight of the bead being an unexpected casting problem. Another reason I don't tie overly heavy flies any more.

 

I've had that before with a bead head lure. The wing whipped it around weirdly and it snapped back just like a bb

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Like Mikechell said. I don't tie beaheads anymore. I find the bead is sometimes to heavy for the water I fish. What I do is carry a packet of various sizes of beads in my shirt and if I want a beadhead, I'll slip a bead on my tippet before I tie on the fly. This way I have more control over the weight of the fly. Also, it simplifies my tying - I don't have to have a BH Pheasant tail and a regular pheasant tail, only need to tie one fly instead of two.

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I tie lots of bead heads. Most of the streams I fish are fast-moving freestone waters, and the extra weight of the beadhead helps get the fly down. I like the bead about the same size as the thorax, or perhaps a little smaller.

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I tie bead head flies and do quite well with them. How big of a bead depends on how I feel the fly should look, no set rules.

 

It is a very interesting subject to me.... when I learned to tie and fly fish, it was "pre-bead" days for the most part. If we wanted weight, we used lead wire in the body, or we used a split shot on the tippet. Those methods worked extremely well. Still do.

 

The other thing that makes me scratch and wonder is this: we strive to always make the smallest, neatest, tightest thread heads we can.... it is taken as a sign of a tyer who knows what he is about.... then throw bead head patterns into the mix and we have these big knobby metal heads on our trout flies. If we tied flies with comparably big thread heads, we'd think they were trash.

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I think the emphasis on tiny heads is a relatively recent development. If you look at the flies of some of the great tiers of the past, their flies have larger heads (for instance, Polly Rosborough, Jim Leisenring, Pete Hidy and Randall Kaufmann), sometimes even incorporated into the design of the flies. Some have argued that the larger heads are because of the heavier thread those tiers used (Pearsall's silk, Nymo and the like,) but I believe those tiers were skilled enough to have made the heads on their flies smaller, if they thought it was important. I am nowhere near as good a tier as those people, but I can tie flies with small heads using Pearsall's silk. I know if I can, they could.

It is hard to believe that a slightly larger or smaller head on a fly really makes a difference, particularly when fish (including so-called super-selective trout) routinely ignore the hook. Some insects have prominent heads; none that I know of sport large, metal protrusions out of their rear ends.

Having a fly that looks like food and, more importantly, acts like food, is more critical than whether we use a few extra turns of thread to finish our flies.

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