Beads & Bare Hooks: The Underground Wants an Education
By Tom Chandler on Mar 3, 2008 in Opinion
Those sleepless caffeine abusers at Moldy Chum found an Alaskan writer who pretty much opens fire on fishing with pegged beads (pegged 2″ above a bare hook).
Apparently, I slept through the development of this particular technique, and didn’t particularly see the big deal until I got to this part:
Just lob that dangling bare hook and bead out there, or better yet drop it straight down over the gunwales of a drift boat and let the guide row you around over the top of the fish, and soon trout will be flopping in the landing net. Because, unlike flies, when a trout bites a pegged bead and spits it out, you don’t even have to be paying attention at all (shoot, sometimes I like to take a nap while fishing this way).
The line below the pegged bead will floss that tricky little bare hook right into the side of that smarty-pants trout’s face — even if he did spit out the bead long before you saw the strike.
Given that the Underground’s largely clueless about pegged beads, does somebody want to enlighten me? Are pegged beads really designed to “floss” fish, wholly removing the need for a timely hook set?
(UPDATE: Another article in the same paper takes the opposite viewpoint; bead fishers just want to have fun. It’s up to you kids)
See you at school, Tom Chandler.
Technorati Tags: pegged beads,fly fishing,fishing
Pete | Mar 3, 2008 | Reply
I’m not sure I get it, either. Are they using pegged bead rigs with fly rods? What’s a hair jacket?
Tom Chandler | Mar 3, 2008 | Reply
Pete: Glass bead pegged to the leader two inches above the bare hook. Apparently, even if the fish spits out the egg, the bare hook nails it on the outside of the mouth. At least that’s what I got from the article.
Ed | Mar 3, 2008 | Reply
For some reason I just have an aversion to any method that has the goal of hooking a fish on the outside of the mouth. Maybe it’s just something that has been ingrained from stereotypes and there isn’t anything wrong with it…but it seems like an even more dumbed down version of “lining” fish to me. What’s wrong with putting a bead on the shank/at the eye of the hook and being a little more proactive in fishing and protective of the fish’s face?
Greg | Mar 3, 2008 | Reply
Yes, it’s done with fly rods. From what I’ve read this seems to be how all the guides are rigging up for their customers.
I watched this done on Larry Czonka’s (sp?) TV show and it seemed to be pretty effective when used on the big rainbows holding downstream from spawning salmon.
I’ve heard of bait anglers dragging treble hooks across spawning beds for salmon, definitely snagging, but in this case the fish are snagging themselves.
I guess that I wouldn’t call it snagging exactly and I’m not sure I’d call it flyfishing but that sort of opens up the can of worms (pun) about where you draw the line on what defines flyfishing.
Don | Mar 3, 2008 | Reply
I fished that way once, but the hook was about 1.5″ from the bead not 2″. It was very effective, but I wouldn’t care to fish that way again.
Biggie | Mar 3, 2008 | Reply
Using beads is an effective way to catch fish that are keyed in on them. I have used them for the past few years and they do catch a lot of fish. The article is wrong in stating that the hook gets the fish on the outside of the mouth. Most of the fish I have caught on the setup have had the hook squarely in the corner of the mouth. Of all the flies that I have fished over the years, it is the one pattern that consistently hooks the fish in the same spot. I have never had to dig one out from deep inside the mouth where a lot of my other nymph patterns have gone before. The beads are probably the most fish friendly flies that I have used. I also have not had many fish that were hooked in the side or the face or under a peck fin. Foul hooking fish with this setup does not happen much because the fish needs to eat the bead and if you don’t set the hook at the right time you usually come up with a limp rod. I don’t feel the beads are a bad thing, it is usually the angler on the other end of the rod who should be held accountable for fishing over actively spawning fish. Fishing a bead well below spawners is not much different than fishing a sofa pillow during a Salmon fly hatch as long as it is done responsibly and with respect for the spawning fish.
the professor | Mar 3, 2008 | Reply
I must chime in here, old boy. I’m in agreement with “Biggie”(!!!). Responsible flyfishing calls for the use of nymphs, beads, tungsten, tin, lead and whatever else seems fit, or heavy. The practice of “pegging beads” eliminates much of the ass-snagging as is so common with regular nymph-fishing. It is so important when dredging the bottom of a river with a floating fly line on a fly rod to impress upon the lookers-on and readers-on, that flyfishing, even with weighted lines, weighted nymphs and weighted leaders makes one, in fact, an accomplished flyfisherman. How droll. Ah…perhaps I’m wrong. The “Sofa Pillow”!!! What a fantastic pattern…and…what weighed nymph hangs off the ass of that fly? But…I digress….
Dr.Cane | Mar 3, 2008 | Reply
I’m with biggie: the idea is fish often take real eggs and egg flies quite deeply and so you risk gill hooking them (which results in a fatally hemorrhaging fish).
The short gap between the bead and the hook means the hook lodges in the “scissors”, and spares the fish the blood letting.