Beaded Vs Non Beaded Flys

[Garlicmarshmellow]

What percentage do you folks believe that you are using bead headed flies over non bead headed flies. I notice with my tying lately that less and less flies are of the non beaded variety. Other than the worm, 80% of my flies fished are now of the beaded variety.

[Tungsten]

Lately I've bin spinning mayfly nymphs ,6 with black tungsten bead 6 with brass bead and 6 without.So i guess 66%of my tying has bead heads.

[theboy]

I find them to sink too fast....i try and have a 50 50 selection.A bead head just sinks too fast in shallow water.Keep your options open you know.

[Flytyer]

Unless I'm tying them for someone else, I almost never use beads and if I do it most likely will betied using glass beads. Bead heads tend to dive unnaturally I find and not great for swimming. Just becauseI don't use beads often doesn't mean I don't weight my flies

[SilverDoctor]

Just depends I have some in my box not a lot, but I prefer non brass bead variety for most flies. There are some exceptions like Chironomids and other flies and bead headed buggers. where I like to include glass beads in various colors. So I guess it's a cross section depending on the type. With nymphs I like to weight them instead of using a bead head, though I have a few with beads on the body..

 

There are also times where a bead can be used to simulate the bubble some nymphs use to rise to the surface so I guess it's a variety.

Edited February 16, 2009 by SilverDoctor

[Gil]

I like my brass beadheads and tie 75% of my nymphs with them (except stones) simply because in my experience they work well. I used to use tungsten but find they sink too fast so now use a standard bead head. With so much wieght they don't have a natural motion.

[maxwell]

mixture for me.. getting more into non beeded flies tho... ide say maybe 1/4 of my nymphs are beeded

[jack]

I'm a bead body fly fanatic. 10/0 glass czech seed beads are the greatest thing since hooks. Not so much a metal bead head guy, but use single glass beads as nymph heads also. Mostly stillwaters where rocks and flow don't come into play, however, I do use 6/0 glass beads behind a steel bead for salmon flies.

Bead-bodied micro leeches are my "thing".

 

 

Couple of Brian Chan's killers:

 

 

and stages of stillwater caddis:

 

 

j

 

 

[fish432]

beads almost always. Weight is a good thing for nymphs. Faster I can get too and longer I can stay at the bottom the better.