That’s a new one too…I didn’t know they rattled;)
my bed chains never rattle but they do wiggle.
what miniscule amount of weight will be added when the bead fills up??
thats like saying “i add fine gold wire to add weight to my nymphs”
Did my original post come off as rude? If it did, I apoligize. It wasn?t meant to be.
I fish a lot of the Lake Erie and Ontario salmon & steelhead streams, here in New York State. We have weight and fly restrictions on all of our tribs, so the bead chain patterns are great alternatives to other weighting systems. When dry, they weigh virtually nothing, but when they get wet, they fill with water and add additonal weight to the fly. It?s true, that small or micro eyes aren?t going to add much weight, but if you use medium or larger bead chains, they do help sink the fly rather quickly. Many of the top Salmon River, salmon and steelhead flies are tied with bead chains for that very reason.
I saw a post or tip someplace about actually filling the bead chain eyes with solder to make them heavier.
Seemed like a lot of work to do it, but it certainly would make them heavier.
As far as rattling, that little piece of left over stem will rattle a bit when dry. I’m not sure how much noise it would make once water got in there.
Unless you are in a place where they restrict how you weight your flies, the weighting capabilities of the beadchain are irrelevant. If you need more weight, just wrap some lead on the hook, use a split shot, or forgo the bead chain for lead dumbbells.
I could be wrong, but I think the original question here was more about asthetics, covering the ‘hole’ as it were, for looks more than a weight concern.
Buddy
I love using Beadchain eyes. Sometimes on the larger eyes the holes can have a sharp tag of metal that will cut your tippet. Be sure to check before you tie on the fly. A quick zap with a hook file or stone will slove the problem.
I don’t paint or fill in my bead chain. If I want a heavier fly, I use hourglass eyes instead.
I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’