Why beadheads are effective.

All about flies Fly Tying
1

Let the fur fly!

I hear a lot of balderdash on why beadheads are so effective.Most of it I think originated with guides who introducing their “purist” clients to beadheads for the first time, didn’t want to offend them by telling them that they had a brass sinker on their fly. Instead they told the angler that the bead represented a gas bubble or the flash of the bead was an attractor. ((And that they were hanging it beneath an “Indicator”, (not a Bobber)).This was easier for the purist to accept. And of course a lot of “expert” outdoor writers not having any facts repeated what they had heard. And anglers not having any facts repeated what they had been told or what they had read. And so the myth was built.

The real answer to the effectiveness of beadhead is WEIGHT, they get the fly down to the fishes level. Now about this time many of you will be saying “Balderdash, (I love the sound of that word.) I use lead wire on my flies and the beadsheads are more efffective so it can’t be the weight.” WRONG! And let me tell you why. Do you have any idea as to how many wraps of lead wire it takes to equal a brass bead? Make a quess and then read the exmple in the last paragraph. You will be surprised.

I wrote an article for American Angler (Nov/Dec./1998) where I presented the results of weighing all sorts of beads, eyes, sleeves, lead wire and copper wire. I was tired of hearing guesses by the so called “experts” so I did the research myself. The results were eye opening.

For example - To equal the weight of a single 5/32 " brass bead (the counter-bored type sold by Spirit River); it would take 27.2 wraps of 0.020" diameter lead wire wrapped, single layer, on a Mustad #9672, size 12 hook! Of course if you change the parameters by going to a larger hook, or first wrapping the shank with thread, or wrapping multiple layers of lead wire the numbers will change. But I really doubt that very many of you ever use this much lead wire on your nymphs. And those of you that think you are adding a significant amount of weight to their flies by cramming a couple of wraps of lead wire into the rear of their beads or by ribbing with copper wire are just fooling yourselves. There are enough unknowns in our sport without having to guess at the weight of our flies.

2

Ok I’ll bite. So they weigh more than lead wraps and that may be a reason they catch fish but if you think thats the only reason I would have to say YOUR WRONG and I’ll tell you why. The fish in the stream I regularly visit show a definite preference for gold and copper colored beads as opposed to black or silver and this theory has been tested again and again by myself and by my fishing partners and the gold bead ALWAYS outfishes the silver or black. The silver will outfish the non beadhead most of the time but a flashback nymph almost always outfishes a standard nymph also. So I agree the weight is a definite factor in their effectiveness but to dismiss the flash as a triggering device is just plain silly.
Turk

3

“The real answer to the effectiveness of beadhead is WEIGHT”

Getting your fly into the “strike” zone is very important no one will argue that, I would have to disagree that weight is the single biggest contributor as to why beads seem to have such a large impact, I say this because I tie lots of different nymphs and chironimads with glass beads from the craft store and have had awesome success with them…Just what I think and that aint sayin much