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Nymphs: To Bead or Not to Bead?

To Bead or Not to Bead?  

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Hey guys,

I'm sorting and filling my boxes for the coming spring, and as I was sorting I realized 'Holy smokes! I've got umpteen million beadhead nymphs and barely a single beadless nymph to be found!' I guess I fish mostly with beadhead nymphs because when I nymph I usually want to get it down to the bottom and I feel that the extra weight helps. I do know weightless nymphs are important at times and maybe I'm missing out by filling my box with shiny beads.

 

P.S- for simplicities sake, we won't consider emergers and pupae as nymphs.

 

So the question I pose to you is do you prefer beadhead nymphs or non-beadhead nymphs, or do you use both equally? Give a reason for your choice if you would be so kind.

 

Best regards,

Cody

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I carry both but when I fish with nymphs, I use beadheads about 65 percent of the time. I feel mostly it helps get the fly down and also adds some attractant to the fly.

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Most of my nymphs are bead heads. In my experience I catch more fish on them. Even if I use splitshot to get the fly down. Maybe the fish mistake the bead for an egg and a hatching nymph? That's about all I can come up with, what do you guys think?

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I'm 50/50. Often I will use a weighted nymph to get down in the water column and then 1-2 unweighted nymphs to trail below. It all depends on depth, water speed etc.

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I'm getting away from brass colored beads for the most part. Still use a lot of black, using more of the new colors coming out. Montana fly has some great new colors of there Luccent beads.

 

carlp

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I'm getting away from brass colored beads for the most part. Still use a lot of black, using more of the new colors coming out. Montana fly has some great new colors of there Luccent beads.

 

carlp

 

I'm with you on that on Carl. I've been using a lot of black and copper beads. I seem to do a little better on those. Maybe they're not as used to seeing bead colors other than gold?

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I voted a mix.

 

For me there are times when a bead head may not be working but the same pattern in non-bead head will work.

 

I think it has to do with a couple of things, primarily the fish feeding in different parts of the water column that the nymph reaches with or without the weight. There is also a lot of fishing pressure on the Bow and most people are using beads so when the fish are not spooked I go without the bead.

 

Andrew

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Almost always beaded for me. As a matter of fact, I can't recall the last time i fished a nymph without a bead.

 

As you said, when I'm fishing nymphs (come to think of it, nymphs are pretty much all I fish, lol) I want it as far down in the water column as it can get, as fast as it can get there. Plus the extra flash can never hurt.

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You can dislike flash (and use black beads)

or you can dislike brass beads as too common (and use silver, copper or painted ones instead)

or you can dislike nymphs altogether (and return home without contact with fish, but with your dry fly man's image intact)

 

But you can hardly argue that a tungsten bead is the most compact form of ballast known (you could get even higher density from some exotic mats, such as 999/000 gold, but that is hardly practical).

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Ok so strange question but does this thread keep popping up as a newly posted thread without any new posts for anyone else?

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both... beads in fast water / dirty water... no beads in slower / still water

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