Walmart Glass Beads

Fly Patterns
1

saw some cheap glass beads at walmart and wondered if anyone has used these and what size hook they work on. they are sold in a tube

Thanks
Warm Water

2

Yep, most hooks within reason… especially if you debarb…many craft store and Wal-Mart beads aren’t consistent in hole size but the price offsets that IMHO.

3

I use them a lot.

You can buy more expensive beads that are very consistent, but the price is several magnitudes higher than the cheap beads. Even if half of the ‘cheap’ beads don’t work, you can still buy several thousands of them for the price of a couple of hundred high end beads.

They are, best case, going to end up in the mouth of a fish…how ‘good’ do they need to be?

Asfor size, Ducksterman hit it right on. These fit most hooks, more with debarbing. If your hooks have some ‘flex’ in them, they fit even more. Experiment as your results may vary.

Good Luck!

Buddy

4

And don’t be afraid to really apply force to slip [push] them past a barb…so what if the occasional one fractures…you’d be surprised how often you can actually get them on…same for some metal beads…

5

how about size 18’s?? I buy most of my hooks BL.

6

You can use them up to about size 12, Buy one tube and see how they work for you.

Rick

7

thanks Rick, actually i remember seeing them even cheaper at Big LOts for about 50 cents a tube.

Warm Water

8

I never buy the high priced tying beads, I buy all of my beads in craftshops hehehe and have around 50 diferent colors in 3 sizes! and yes the smallest ones fit on size 18 hooks, I found some of them small enough to tie size 20 mercury midges!! and I buy a hundred for about 10 cent of a dollar thats about 1.3 pesos hehehe

CC

9

I have bought beads at both Wally world and the fabric shop, for essentially the same price. I did notice a much higher consistency in those from the craft shop. Take a look around and do a little comparison shopping (ugh, I’ve become my own worst nightmare).

10

I try with glass beads a lot, I dont go to walmart or and rarely use craft store for my bead buying. I go to a bead store to buy my beads and these are the reason I do 1) the selcetion is much better
2)the price is not that much
more the the craft stores
3)and they let me take my hooks
in and try beads for size.
These are the reason I use a bead store for buying my glass beads.
Ghost.

11

Just to add onto what Ghost wrote:

One nice thing about a fully stocked bead store, you can get REALLY SMALL beads. I’m talking 17/0 sometimes 20/0 that will fit nicely on those pesky 24s and 26s without looking like an ice cream cone. And, they will have lots of colors. These beads won’t break the bank, either.

It’s also a great place to get tools.

And some of the stuff they use for stringing beads has applications for us fly tiers as well.

If you have access to a good bead shop. it will be well worth your time to browse a bit.

Good Luck!

Buddy