Bead heads and superglue

I learned a bunch about tying bead head nymphs in that thread here a couple weeks back. Then recently I ran into a similar issue -- I wanted an oversized bead on a scud to fish for grayling here in Colorado (a VERY strange fish!), and I was tying some other nymphs on small hooks and I had only beads that were just a bit too big -- they pushed up too far and covered the hook eye, or came right off.

So I worked this technique up, and now I use on ALL bead heads that I tie.

Position the bead in the right spot. Tilt the vise down just a bit, and apply a tiny drop of medium or thick superglue to the big hole in the back of the bead. (I never use the supermarket superglue, always the hobby store stuff -- a much better product.) I use a disposable micro-pipette (from a luthier supply shop) or a thin guitar string to apply just a tiny dot....the spouts on big superglue bottles are worthless and apply too much glue.

Then, I stick a sewing needle all the way in the hook eye, then hit the bead with a spritz of superglue accelerator (from the hobby store) which instantly sets the glue. Then, gently work the needle loose -- if you were precise in your tiny dot of glue, it will come right out, if you were sloppy it still comes out, and keeps the hook eye clear of glue.

Anyway, I hope that technique helps someone somewhere!

DAN

A method that I recommend is to solder the bead to the hook. After placing the bead on the hook, tilt the hook so the eye is downward in the vise. Heat the bead with a solder iron. (I find that an inexpensive iron works much better than a solder gun.) Using the smallest diameter solder you can find feed the solder into the back of the bead.
Let it cool a minute to set up and then remove from the vise. Be careful as the brass bead will retain the heat.
This technique will add approximately 30% to the weight of the bead.
At first I was concerned about overheating the vise jaws but this turned out to be a non-problem.
On very small hooks I try to position the bead so that it is tilted upward on the hook rather than hanging downward where it could partially obstruct the bend and hinder hook ups. On larger hooks this is not a concern and I just center the bead on the hook shank.

I just tie a head on the front of the fly before I put on the bead. That way it won't slip over the eye.
Kahuna