Read a book on stream fishing for Smallies and the author swore by a Wooly Bugger type streamer but it used Glass Bead eyes attached with a melted piece of mono…theory was the eyes clicked together.
For the life of me, can’t remember which book it was in and I am looking for the recipe…can’t recall if eyes were attached first or last and if he ties them on th bend of the hook or near the eye as is traditonal.
Anyone know about this???
not sure of the clicking part! i dont think the clicking would be loud enough or create enough vibration to be felt by a fish. whats are they gonna click against??
the eyes would be figure 8 wrapped at the head of the fly not the bend. just like clouser eyes are wrapped.
just a guess
yeah, I’ll have to try and look up the book…borrowed it from the library and meant to tie some up when I had it but it was actually fishing season…
for some reason, I keep thinking he was tying them when the glass beads on the bend of the hook for some odd reason.
the beads are attached togther with the mono and they click against each other.
Brhoff,
Thread two beads onto a piece of mono with a ball melted on one end (so the beads don’t slide off). Glass beads work well, as does a combination of one glass bead and one brass bead.
Tie the mono onto the TOP of the hook, and let the beads protrude beyond the bend. You want the length of the mono behind the hook shank to be just long enough so that beads can move a bit and ‘click’ together as you work the fly.
Tie them on FIRST, then complete witchever fly you want to tie…this works on many different fly styles, but is most often used on flies that imitate crawfish. Only place of concern when tying is to use a tailing material that won’t foul the beads (marabou does this badly).
The purpose of the beads is to make a light clicking noise, similar to what a crawfish makes as it crawls over rocks. They are not intended to be ‘eyes’.
Another option with the same theory is to place the two beads onto a staight pin (dressmakers pin?) and tie the pin to the top of the shank with the bead protruding out in front of the eye of the hook (use either a TDE or jig hook for this). The same thing occurs, the beads click together as you work the fly, but the front weight gives a different action. For a more sublte sound, use just one bead and let it click against the hook eye…Great for ‘jig’ style flies.
With both of these methods, the flies will ride hook point UP, so take that into consideration as you tie.
Mainstream bass fishermen have long used the sounds of glass and metal beads working together to attract bass. It does work.
Buddy
You may be thinking about flies with glass beads called bouncer flies. While they look real great, I have not tried any, but intend to tie up a few and give them a test run. Try looking up www.bouncerflies.com.
Chugger
Why not just buy small glass rattles that are used in soft plastic baits?
They also make small metal tubes with rattles for the same purpose. They are about 3/16" in diameter and about 1/2" or less long. You can buy them all day at BPS.
You could easily hide it as you wrap the body or even use the rubber rattle holders that are found on jigs and just lash that to the hook shank & let it protrude.
I think Buddy has the info I was looking for…this is what I remember…thanks
Bamboozle reflects an idea I have tried and which was also demonstrated at the Winter Hatches Tying Symposium in January. The small tubes containing 3 beads can easily be hidden within a mylar tube body on a zonker. They just need to be held with some good wraps and epoxied before the mylar tube is slid over them.