I am a relative novice to this whole business of tying flies for trout. I have fiddled around with it for twelve or fifteen years but mostly concentrated on bream flies. Only in the last few have I attempted to tie flies that I had any confidence I would catch a trout with. The whole subject of glass or plastic beads is challenging to me. I have used a few larger black glass beads for nymph heads and some small clear (diamond it say son the pack for color) for some soft hackles but am somewhat lost at what to buy and where to find them. Walmart has beaucoup beads but are they the right size?
Those little bitty beads at Wally’s, usually called Seed Beads, work pretty well for little flies, say size 16 or less. I really like them for midges, as they don’t weight the fly much, so the fly stays up in the water. You can also put a few of them along the shank of the hook, then dub over them for interesting effects. Stack a lot of red ones along a long shank hook for a blood midge. I like the metal beads for nymphs. Gqualls, a member here, sells both the metal ones and tungston ones… http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?35408-Tungsten-Beads-(cleared-with-LF)&highlight=beads
and he has good deals on larger lots.
You can take those seed beads, ooze some hot melt glue over them, to make the dark spot in an egg pattern (MOE egg).
Larger beads work pretty well, but the holes get proportionally larger as well.
Michaels is a good source for beads. Yesterday I picked up two large packs having hundreds if not thousands of beads in them for $1.99 each on sale. One pack was a gold color and the other was a mix of cooper and black.
Nearly all the nymphs I tie have a bead head on them or behind a soft hackle. I’ve tied with the glass ones but they seem to break really easy especially if you are trying to get the nymph down into the water column where the fish typically feed. On some of the smaller dropper flies where they are typically “emergers” type flies on a swing glass is ok, I just don’t find them to be as durable. I had just received a 100pac of the tungy beads from Greg who is a really nice guy and was really impressed on how quickly they had arrived and was tying with them yesterday and today right after I received them.
One good all around pattern that will work nearly any where is a flash back PT with a copper bead head. My variation uses midge flash as a tail tied with red thread with mirage flash running all the way up the back and over the wing case with a red “hot spot” (finishing point) behind the bead. Awesome pattern on which may or may not be my own variant since I’ve never seen anything like it but will catch fish anywhere. Tied down to #18 can become difficult but effective.
I guess it all depends on what you want to tie. If there is no local fly shop near to get bead there are plenty of online resources. I forget the statistic but I think it’s like 80% or more of a trouts diet is subsurface. The best thing to do is pic a pattern you want to tie and try and obtain the materials for that pattern and then you can add variants to it to fit your desired taste. I also find “over sized” prince nymphs around my are work almost too well tied in a size 8 on a 200R. Go figure. Alot of these patterns work best if they hit bottom where the bigger fish typically are.
One thing to remember, you can damage the glass beads by
hitting the rod, and you can damage your rod by hitting it
with metal beads.
Good luck and tight lines.
I make jewelry as well as tying flies so I have quite a lot of beads. PM me your address and what size flies you tie and I will send you a wide assortment of beads so you can try them all out and decide what kind you like before buying a whole pack of them. The only kind I wouldn’t be able to send you are those tungsten or copper beads which are specially made for fly tying because I don’t have them as they are much more expensive than just buying jewelry beads.
I will also label the types of beads (if I know them) so you can find them at a craft store or online. All I ask is that you not buy beads from Wal-Mart if at all possible. I’d rather supply you with all the beads that you’d ever need. And you won’t find the fly-tying specific beads there anyways.
I have always thought that those tables for beads vs hook sizes are wrong.
For example 3.2 mm (1/8th) bead for hook size 12-14!
I would rather put 2-2.5mm bead for a 12 size hook and 2mm for size 14.
Am I alone in the world?
I tie quite a few flies using glass beads. Glass beads come in various sizes but to keep it simple if you stock sizes 6/0 (largest), 8/0 and 10/0 (the smallest) you can satisfy most of your needs.
PM me your address and what size flies you tie and I will send you a wide assortment of beads so you can try them all out and decide what kind you like before buying a whole pack of them. The only kind I wouldn’t be able to send you are those tungsten or copper beads which are specially made for fly tying because I don’t have them as they are much more expensive than just buying jewelry beads.
I’d rather supply you with all the beads that you’d ever need. And you won’t find the fly-tying specific beads there anyways.