Thoughts On Bead Heads & Things

[Rusty Hook]

The subject of bead head nymphs came up on another thread on another board, and it got me to thinking some thoughts that might result in better angling success for some of you in the future.

I must frame this by telling you that I almost never fish bead head nymphs in running water, that's because I like to fish lakes early and late in the angling season, so I fish streams after the runoff has subsided, when dry flies arer all that you need to catch fish. But I do fish bead head nymphs in lakes and employ the things I am going to talk about here.

Of the bead head nymphs mentioned in the other thread (The Prince Nymph, Hare's Ear and various fuzzy caddis imitations), the Prince Nymph is usually considered to fish for stonefly larva or, to a lesser extent, water boatmen and back swimmers. The Hare's Ear is usually considered to be a mayfly nymph imitation, and unless the bead head caddis patterns are tied on caddis style hooks, with long soft hackles used in their construction,they do not make for very realistic caddis pupa imitations.

That is not to say that bead head nymphs are not highly effective, because they are. The reason that they catch so many fish so well is because they do such a good job of getting your fly down to the level of the fish. If you want to catch fish, the first rule is to put your bait or fly where the fish are, on their eye level.Bead head nymphs do thie very well and are justly popular for doing so.

There are a couple of other reasons bead heads are popular that have nothing to do with their fish catching abilities. For commercial fly tiers, they are much more profitible patterns to tie than conventionally weighted nymphs. They do not require laying down a thread base, over which to wrap in lead fuse wire, requiring the cutting and tapering the ends of the wire, then wraping ovel all of that to secure the lead in place, then laquoring over all it to prevent the subsequently added materials from discoloring down the line, then curing the laquor before the rest of the fly can be tied. It is a lot faster, easier, and cheaper to slide a beed on the hook, secure it in place with thread and head cement, then tie in the the rest of the fly.

Bead heads also make life simpler for fly shop owners, fishermen, amd wardens to tell which flies are weighted and which are not, especially where lead weighted flies are banned, so a lot of their popularity has to do with things other than their fishing success.

There are several ways that bead head nymphs can be made into better patterns and more specific imitations of aquatic insects. Using caddis style hooks and long soft hackles for caddis pupa patterns has already been mentioned.

For mayfly nymphs, it would be better to place the bead in the thorax position, behind the legs. It would also be better to use dark beads instead of the shinny ones in this application because mayfly nymphs' wingcases enlarge and darken just prior to emergence. Mayfly nymphs will drift and swim more naturally with the bead tied in farther back, with dull instead of shinny beads placed behind the hackle instead of at the head of the fly.

Water boatmen and back swimmers carry a shinny bubble of air so they can breath under water, but it is at the back of their bodies and not at the head, and they only need to have two legs included in the center of the imitation, set at a 90 degree angle to their bodies.

A lot of aquatic insects return to the water to lay their eggs by swimming or crawling to the bottom of lakes and streams. The do this by encasing their bodies in air, so the shinny surface is not just at their heads here either. And, rather than being shinny and metalic, the color of their bodies shows through the air that they carry.

A better imitation of this life stage can be made by using an above freezing, highly fluorinated, cross country kick wax as a dubbing wax. Natural hair from water born mammals, such as muskrat, otter and beaver, that have not had all the natural oils removed in preparation for sale, work better for this application than the hair of land animals and the synthetics do. The kick wax works better than the dubbing waxes do that are made for the fly fishing trade.

Fluorocarbon waxes are naturally negatively charged. Water is also negatively charged, and the two repell each other like like charged magnets, attracting air bubbles that naturally occure in the water, coating your fly in the real thing. Just like the ovapositing aquatic insects and emerging nymphs do, making for superior imitations that will increas your catcrates considerably, whether you use bead heads or not.

A tin of Swix VR-75 costs 14.50 and will last for many years. Pure fluoro additives and waxes are also available in liquid, powdered and solid forms. But at 99.00 dollars for 20 grams, the cost is too prohibitive for most of use to use the most effective sources of bubble retention ever developed.

The grip wax w
will give the pure powder something to adhear to, making it infinently easier to use. Afther the fly is tied, you use a blow dryer, set on high, to evenly distribute the fluorocarbon substances throught the materials tied on the hook for a superior imitation.

Fish can be attracted to your bait by smell,sound, and vibrations sensed through their latteral lines. But, in the final analysis, it is sens of sight that delivers the prey to the fish for its taking. Tying or buying the most life-like patterns it is possible to have will improve your future catch rates considerably. I hope that you have good fishing in your future, Rusty.

[Patrick]

Rusty--

Just thought I'd clue you that Maggie is going to move the relevant fishing threads from the older forums over here to Backcountry Fishing asap. You have some very informative posts on the subject. Keep it up!

[Kevin]

Rusty, for the beginning fly fisherman, you're overly technical.

Why not give some suggestions for how to fish this time of year, pre-major runoff, for trout?

Flies you find successful, methods, etc.

Let's see how you'd go after your favorite stream in early May.

[Sawtooth]

I just started fly fishing a few years ago, and I still consider myself a beginner in every sense of the word. So from a beginners point of view, here’s what worked and where it worked my first season in the spring. These are entries from my little memo pad I keep in my vest at all times to record date, time, location, water temp, flies used, results, etc. Sorry, some entries kind of short because I’m trying to make a note and get back to fishing.


South Platte River, Elevenmile Canyon (Central Colorado)
May 12 2-5 PM
Water temp 55F
Caddis Hatch
#16 Para Caddis
Caught 5 rainbows 12”-16”

May 28 12:30-3:45 PM
Water temp 58F
#16 Bead Head Prince
5 rainbows 12”-16”

June 4 through June 7
Conejos River (Southern Colorado)

Tried #12 Orange Stimulator with a #16 BH Prince dropper-didn’t work
#16 BH Prince and #16 Flashback Prince caught 3 rainbows

I caught more fish on this trip than is noted. I stopped writing when I found something that worked!


I have also fished the South Fork South Platte in South Park early in the spring. The first year it was so cold my line was freezing in the guides. This was a new experience! The wind up there made my learning curve with casting that much longer! There are some of us beginners here on the board that would love to hear more input from you seasoned veterans, but I for one am looking for the basics. Great writing, Rusty.

[Smokepole]

Rusty:

Good information, but I believe there are reasons other than the added weight that make bead heads effective. A popular way to fish beadheads hereabouts is to drop them off a buoyant dry fly so they're suspended a foot or so below the surface. That works well. I'm not sure if it's just the added flash, resemblance to a gas bubble, or what it is about the beadhead but they just plain work. Also, for smaller flies like a mercury midge a lot of people use glass beads that don't weigh that much. They're just shiny.

I don't like using lead wire to sink my flies. I'd rather use lead on the leader, about 12-18 inches above the fly. The reason being, lead-weighted flies don't drift naturally, IMO. If the lead is on the leader and the fly is unweighted, the fly can bounce around in the current, rising where the current upwells, and it looks more realistic IMO.

Another comment, although the Prince nymph does resemble a stone fly and works well in larger sizes where stoneflies are abundant, it also works well in smaller sizes in streams where stoneflies aren't a factor. Like Eleven Mile Canyon (a tailwater) from Sawtooth's post above. IMO, it's just a good, buggy-looking pattern and the bead head, peacock herl and biot tail just make it look edible. It really isn't an accurate representation of any bugs I'm familiar with, just like a royal coachman isn't an accurate representation of any particular dry fly.

On the hare's ear, I'd agree with you on using caddis style hooks for caddis pupae. They are more realistic that way. But a fuzzy beadhead hare's ear tied on a straight hook will still catch plenty of fish during a caddis emergence. I don't use hackle for caddis legs, I just use coarse hare's mask and tease out the fur to represent legs. I think that's why the hare's ear is such a good fly, the fuzzier you tie them, the better, and you don't have to mess with tying in legs.

[Rusty Hook]

Kevin and All: We had record breaking rain and significant snow fall in the mountains last Thursday. Most of the places I enjoy fishing are still under many feet of snow. The season opened last weekend, but it will be at least a month or more before I will be able to get up to some of my old haunts.

At this time of the year, under high water conditions, bait will out fish luers and flies, with worms usually doing better than eggs. As the water receeds some and you can get at them, stonefly and caddis as well as Dobsenfly larva that you catch in the stream you are fishing will do better than store bought bait of garden hackle. Shortly there after, lures will come into their own. If you want to catch them on flies, Wooly Buggars, Hear's Ears, Prince Nymphs, Pheasant Tail Nymphs and Zug bugs would be the best bets. Bead head or weighted will both work better than unweighted patterns.

Southern and western exposures will come down and have better fishing before northern and eastern facing drainages will, and also streams having controlled releases below dams will fish well above the many uncontrolled feeding tributarys intering them. As the lakes thaw, they will usually fish better than the high running streams will.

Some surprisingly good dry fly fishing can be had on streams with low flows early in the year, with down wings out fishing up wings in this area by a ratio of better than two to one. Our Sierra waters are pretty acedic, and stone and caddisfly populations fair much better here than mayflies do. There are Carpender Ants about as soon as there is some ground free of snow, but it is a bit too early for beetle activity other than back swimmers and water boatmen, which are only important to the fish in the spring and fall. A regular beetle pattern given a jerky retrieve will often work just fine if you do not have a specific imitation with the sculling oars.

As the streams come down and stabilize,dry flies will come into their own. Most of the streams around here are freestone streams; they are pretty infertile, with gin clear water and fast flows. The trout are not very selective as to patterns and will usually accept anything that looks buggy and gets a drag free drift.

I don't think that this will be of much help to most of you because conditions vary so much with different regions, elevations and locals, but there should be some general principles included in this that should apply most any where trout and mountains can be found...Rusty

[Rusty Hook]

Sawtooth and Smoke pole: You both have provided a lot of good information; there are many ways to skin a cat and what ever works works for you.

Sawtooth, I would say that with the size of the fish You are catching out of the South Platt that you are doing just fine.

Smokepole, I generally prefer to fish with unweighted patterns also. Greasing an unweighted nymph tied as you describe is better than carrying a set of specilized patterns for emergers for a backpacking fishermen. General impressionistic patterns that can be fished for a number of different life forms, depending on how they are fished, is the way to go in my opinnion.

You are both right about the fact that trout will often take flies that look like nothing in nature. They sometimes take cigarett butts and marshmellows, and what do they look like? Rusty.

[Rusty Hook]

Patrick: Thanks for having those threads moved. I believe they will add a lot of content and continuity to this board and help keep them from getting lost in the shuffle...Rusty

[Smokepole]

Rusty:

I know you fish high lakes a lot, from your past posts. One thing I've never cracked the code on is midge fishing in lakes. How do you approach it, in general? If they're taking emergers near the surface (seems like a common occurence), what's your favorite way to fish those, technique-wise, and what are your favorite all-around flies? What do you do when there's no apparent activity, what techniques do you use then for midge fishing?

Kevin: This time of year, pre-runoff in CO, you're talking blue-wing olives for mayflies, midges, a few caddis, and stonefly nymphs. BWOs will run about a size 18 or 20 for dry flies, carry a few patterns like a hackled dun, parachute, and compara-dun (no hackle). Parachute Adams work sometimes, and they're just a good all-around fly to have in your box anyway. Try the dun first during a hatch, if there's no takers and you know they're taking dries, go to the parachute or comparadun. They float lower in the water and some say present a more realistic profile to the fish. Best dry fly action is on cloudy days especially in rain or snow.

If there's no hatch, use some split shot on your leader (about 12 inches or so above the fly) to get the flies down quickly and an RS-2, Barr's emerger, pheasant tail, or similar nymph in a size 18 or 20. If the fish are taking emergers just below the surface (slashing rises, dorsal fins showing, etc), fish the nymphs unweighted and grease all but the last 3 feet or so of your leader and watch for the floating portion of the leader to pull under.

In most of the freestone streams hereabouts I've found that a size 16 beadhead Prince is a great choice for a prospecting fly when there's no apparent activity. They don't seem to work for me as well in tailwaters. A good combination is a two-nymph rig with a 16 or 14 beadhead prince, followed by a dropper fly like one of the BWO nymphs named above. Or, this time of year, an egg pattern or orange scud with a small dropper fly is good. The beadhead or egg pattern seems to get their attention, and a lot of times, they'll take the more realistic trailing fly. Use a fine tippet, 5x or 6x for tying the dropper fly on, and tie the tippet right to the bend in the hook of the lead fly. Use a length of 12 to 18 inches for the dropper. Also, it's easier to tie a clinch knot onto your finger, leave the loop large, and then slip it over the hook bend and tighten than it is to tie it directly to the fly. Sounds complicated, but it works.

And in the tailwaters, midges are good year-round, but especially early in the year and again in the fall. Patterns like the miracle nymph, mercury nymph, black beauty, and WD-40 in size 20 and 22 are good fished by themselves or behind a flashy nymph. Use weight on the leader to get them down.

Sawtooth: I've got a fly that I really like for Eleven Mile canyon from June through July. Its a size 18 beadhead nymph tied on a caddis style hook like Rusty described above. Just some fuzzy hare's ear dubbing and a fine copper wire rib. I hope to make it to the rendezvous, if I do, I'll bring a few for you. Sounds like you fish there a bit, it's one of my favorite places to spend a day.

[Sawtooth]

Smoke,

If you come to the Rondy, we'll meet, as I will definitely be there. I like Elevenmile Canyon, even if it gets a little crowded sometimes. Once you get in the water, and the only thing you can hear is the rush of the flow coming off the walls, you don't even notice the occasional vehicle coming up the road above. One of my favorite memories is a couple of years back spending the whole day there with my old friend, Vern, who is now nearly 75 and recovering from a recent battle with throat cancer. It was late afternoon, and the setting sun was backlighting the caddis, which were floating in the air above the water. We were alone on that stretch of water, and it seemed that time stood still. I wouldn't trade that day for anything.