I posted a beadhead softhackle last week and felt that something was a little off. I decided to tie up the same fly on different hooks with and without a bead to see if I could get the proportions right and put a finger on what seems to work and what doesn’t. I don’t know if I got any closer to the answer but here they are. The first two are on the same hook, one with the other without the bead. The second beadhead is on a longer curved shank. The last is a straight shank and beadless like a traditional wetfly. It may still be the most elegant of them all. How can I get a bead on there and still maintain its simple beauty.
Perhaps placing the bead behind the hackle, this will use the bead to keep the hackle from sticking to the fly in moving water. Nice flies by the way, far nicer than I tie.
Greg,
These flies are ALL great… the questions you are asking are questions that please the fishermen’s eye and we are all different with different opinions… not the fishes! Every fisherman has an opinion, and mine is that all of those flies are much better than I could tie… they are simply beautiful! The truth is, most likely ALL of these flies will catch fish on the same day if fished at the same time under the exact same conditions. Go get them wet!! :):)
Thanks guys. Your point is well taken Mahanvey. I guess I wanted some weigthed vs unweighted to fish in different conditions or different places in the water column. when I think about it the weight probably doesn’t affect the fly as much as I imagine it does. I realize I could add weight without the bead but whenever I do that, I have trouble identifying which ones are weighted and which ones aren’t. As far as placing the bead behind the hackle, I did think of that but would have to place the bead back a little from the eye to make room, which is do-able, but just haven’t tried it yet. I’m afraid the bead might slide forward over time with casting and push the hackle forward to a rather extreme angle over time.
[b]This is a personal feeling, but I have never really liked beads combined with ‘Spiders’ or if you prefer
North Country softhackles. If they required weight, I would rather used fine lead wire or its substitute.
An underbody of copper wire is another alternative which works well. Recently I have been using coloured
(painted) wire to make bodies for sinking spiders. An idea I copied from William Anderson.
I feel that a gold bead or any bead
affects the water flow through the hackle, which is the main advantage with soft hackles.
As I said this is a personal feeling with no scientific evidence.
I have used beads of various kinds as nymph heads.
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Thanks for the suggestion Donald. Your north country softhackles are always inspiring. I’ve never really liked the bead/softhackle combo either and was hoping to come up with a solution to make it work to my satisfaction. It may be I need to just drop the bead alltogether and use wire as you have done. Which hooks are you using by the way? I like their shape with the wider gap and straight eye.
Greg,
Email me your snail-mail address and I’ll send you a dozen different soft-hackle flies for you to take a look at, see what you think.
Photos don’t do them justice, and you have to see them move underwater. ffc@tribcsp.com
[b]The light weight hooks I have been using lately are
Varivas curved shank 2200. I like the barbless version.
This is a Rusty Dun Spider size 12 hook.
Another hook I like is the one I used above, TMC2488.
Basically I like s/e hooks for spiders, but I do use some traditional d/e hooks, like the Partridge Captain Hamilton hooks, which have a good
wide gap. [/b]
Thanks for posting the hooks Donald. There is something I really like about the hook (I think it’s the varivas 2200 curved if I am reading correctly) used on the Rusty Dun you posted above. It is nice they offer a barbless version as well. It saves the step of crimping down the barbs before each tie.
There are a couple of ways I use to put the bead in front of the hackle on this kind of fly.
You can put a small piece of silicone tubing on the hook shank to seat the bead on. If you do this well you will get a little collar of tubing around the hook eye that protects your tippit from any sharp edge on the bead.
Second method is to partly cover the bead. I do this by tying on something like pheasant tail, or floss, pointing forward over the eye. Whip finish, then slide the bead onto the thread base. Restart the thread behind the bead and pull the material over it. I like this method for two reasons: 1. It lifts the bead slightly out of the gape of the hook. 2. Covering part of the bead breaks up the reflection. My theory is, that when you want to draw someones attention to something you put a flashing light on it, not a constant one. Emergency vehicles for example. By breaking the reflection on the bead you get the same effect as the fly tumbles.
Once the fly is tied whip finish behind the bead and add a drop of cement. Don’t trim out the thread. If your fly has a dubbed body then apply a touch more of the dubbing to the thread and form a second whip finish using the dubbed thread. Or catch in a peacock herl and wind that. If you wind it tight to the bead you can get your second whip finish in without it showing.
The idea of using coloured copper wire for the body has been very productive for me. Not only winding a single strand, but by weaving the wire.
Hi Ed,
I have never been happy with Beads on Spiders, a small dubbed thorax is better.
Larger nymph pattern might be passable but even then I have doubts.
The very small, 150mm, beads I used with the Varivas patterns are not much bigger than a thread head and look ok to me, if some weight is required.
But, as I’ve said before, this is purely a personal preference.
Mr. Nicolson, those two flies look a whole lot better than “OK”. They are quite beautiful. Thanks for sharing them. Also, I really like your hooks and I’m going to look for them over here.
I too would put the bead behind the hackle - if it must have a bead. It works the same as a tuft of dubbing there - although the bead probably should be smaller than pic 3. You can put a base of thread there and crazy glue the bead in place, or you can actually wrap thread on one side, do a half hitch and then just bring the thread to the other side. A single strand of thread is hardly noticed but locks the bead in place.
If you wrap the hook with lead, the traditional way to tell which are weighted and which are not is to use different coloured thread on one vs. the other. Sometimes the thread is read, but you could also use green or brown if it is for these ‘nymphs’/spiders and you want a more natural look.
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