The focus of this article is not intended as a historical study of the use of beads for fishing. It is more of a pictorial of various styles of flies that incorporate glass, metal and sometimes plastic beads in their construction. The purists among us will likely find the free style flies we present here to be excessive in their dressings while others will see that I have tried to celebrate the use of unusual materials and use more common materials in unusual ways. I understand both camps and can appreciate that often times breaking “the rules” is met with resistance. It is my hope that those of you who like to push the rules will take to using beads in your flies and that these offerings by some of my friends and I will give you some ideas on how to use them in your tying both on fishing flies and those intended to be eye candy.

I mentioned that this was not going to be a historical study of the use of beads on flies but, some mention of early use can’t hurt our discussion of the topic.

Vladimir Markov is an inventive and original thinker who resides in Irkutsk Russia. Vlad ties a variety of different flies from standard fishing dries and nymphs, super realistic flies and some “bead head” flies he calls “Holey Head Flies”. Vlad has written about the history and his further development of using them for flies, in his website (http://www.markov.baikal.ru/) where he also tells how to make them. These hooks really could be considered jig hooks although the shank is straight where jig hooks are more often bent.

Vlad writes, “Mormyshka, as the original hooks are known as, were likely invented over 100 years ago in Russia. The prototypes were big spoon-baits used for ice fishing. Trying to imitate scuds fishermen made it smaller and changed the way of fixing it on the line. As a result there appeared an efficient lure that spread quickly among winter fishermen all around Russia and Scandinavia. In my research, the oldest mention of this style of fly is in the book by L. P. Sabanejev, "Fishing Calendar" published in Moscow, 1885. Mormyshka has changed a lot since then but, it is still used mainly in winter ice fishing. Some factories in Finland and Russia started production of good quality winter Mormyshkas.

Mormyshka hooks by Vlad Markov

Mormyshka is a small artificial lure consisting of a metallic head and a hook soldered into it. In the middle of the head there is a little vertical hole (the eye of the hook.).

For the past few years Mormyshka have been used in summer fishing with the long rod and a float by bait anglers. It is used either with live bait or alone.

Beaded flies tied by Vlad Markov

Some years ago when I started to use Mormyshkas in fly-fishing, I asked a craftsman to solder Mormyshkas on nymph fly hooks and I tied my own and standard fly patterns on them. Those flies were very similar to the Bead Head Nymph and as efficient as the latter but they hung up on the bottom much less.”

Beaded flies tied by Roman Moser

Roman Moser Writes in the “http://globalflyfisher.com/index.php”, “The gold bead flies that are now so popular, actually originated in the central part of Europe - more than 100 years ago. The roots of the Gold Head or Pearl Head flies lie in the Northern Italian area.” The bait and spin fishermen crafted nymphs created with snelled hooks on which a pearl glass bead was attached to the head area and lacquered. Later, plastic beads were also used.

Beaded flies tied by Roman Moser

In 1978 I got some of these pearl head flies from Tyrolean friends who told me that these nymphs were extremely successful in the murky Inn-river. I tied some of these nymphs a tiny size 14 hook with a golden plastic pearl. To get the fly down I also added two layers of fine lead wire as underbody. I used the fly first on my home river the Austrian Traun - at that time a world famous grayling river (today a world famous CORMORANT river). The success was tremendous and astonishing. In the clear water I could see how the graylings turned around and followed the nymph over many meters downstream to take it without any hesitation. …The next step in further developments at that time was to create a gold head nymph heavier than that with the glass or plastic head. The logical step was to use a brass ball or bead as additional weight. A new fly was born, and I named it the "Gold Head".”

Beaded flies tied by Roman Moser

Since Roman’s development of the bead head flies we now know, their popularity has spread literally around the world.

Beaded flies tied by Roman Moser

Some of us aging Anglers/Tyers first saw beads used on old lures and other “hardware” for fishing. I still have tackle boxes full of beaded lures as well as loose components for making them. I no longer use that method of fishing preferring to fly fish whenever I get the chance to get away from the day to day efforts to make a living.

Iridescent Flashback Goldstone, adult tied by Ronn Lucas, Sr.

Iridescent Flashback Goldstone, nymph tied by Ronn Lucas, Sr.

My first use of glass beads on flies were as eyes on my Trout flies like Stones, Damsels, Scuds and other aquatic fish food. I rationalized that Trout, Salmon, Steelhead, Bass and various other fish are predators and as such, they will “key in” on various elements on their prey to be successful hunters. Eyes typically indicate the head area of all beasts whether aquatic of terrestrial. We know that land based predators will chase their prey as it makes a get away. The eyes will often betray the direction that any given prey animal may take. For that reason, nature often evolves “false” eyes on many insects and fish.

Picket Pin & Hare’s Ear flies tied by Ronn Lucas, Sr.

I also recognized that many insects and even small food fish have legs, fins and spikes that when swallowed tail first can impede the passage or even cause pain. Most go down easily when swallowed head first. You can see this everywhere in nature. Snakes & lizards always position their food head first as do many fish eating birds. This is true mostly of predators that lack the ability to chew or tear apart the prey. So here, the eyes will indicate the end of the meal for the fish to eat first.

With this in mind plus my dislike of following the “normal rules”, I began to use tiny glass beads as eyes for my fishing flies. You can find glass beads in craft and bead stores with the latter being a treasure trove for beads to use in display flies. Beads have various names and types but for small fishing flies, seed beads are the smallest and most usable. They are sized in a numbering system with numbers like 11/0 which is about as small as you’ll usually find in a craft store and 8/0 which are quite large and way too big for small flies. The larger beads are very useful for large flies though.

Beaded Hare’s Ears tied by Ronn Lucas, Sr.

I always go to a new bead shop when I see one in my travels and quite a long time ago, I found one that had antique seed beads from around the 1900’s. These were made in tiny sizes of about 22/0 and a few even smaller! They had been used in the millinery trades then and whenever you see any on the market now, they have been salvaged from old clothing, purses and hats.

To use beads for eyes, I take old mono that can be found in many sizes and colors in recycling bins at sporting goods stores. I string beads on a size of mono that is as snug a fit as possible. First, you need to melt one end of the mono and string up as many as you want, leaving plenty of mono without beads on it. Then, place the other end of the mono next to a flame (I use a gas Bunsen burner but a lighter, candle or alcohol lamp will work too) just close enough to melt the end a tiny bit. I immediately place the melted end against my thumb nail or tweezers. This flattens the end of the mono a bit and will secure the beads well. Then, I slide two beads to that end; grasp the end of the mono to wherever will give me the melted end plus enough distance between the eyes for the size of flies they will be used on. Basically, you make a tiny dumbbell. I will make several hundred sets of eyes in advance so when I want to use them, they are ready to go.

Green Drake tied by Ronn Lucas, Sr.

It wasn’t long after I had used beads on my fishing flies that I started using them on my free style flies. That began a whole new search for glass and metal beads with completely different requirements.

99% of the time that I use glass and metal beads on my display flies; it is on blind eye hooks. This makes it easy to get the bead on either before the gut eye is put on or after, as long as the hole in the bead is large enough to fit over the eye. I will select the wing whose colors will usually dictate all of the rest of the fly’s colors including the beads. Then, I determine how I will use the beads on the fly and where. I almost always want the beads to fit somewhat loose on the shank with enough space for other materials to be tied off and the bead slid over to cover it. If the beads are too snug, the average Tyer will have a challenge of how to tie off a material and then slide the beads over that area. I’m lucky in that I have a high speed dental handpiece like your dentist uses. I can enlarge the bead’s hole when need be but, even with the handpiece and water to keep the glass and diamond stone cool, it really eats diamonds fast. That tends to get a little on the costly end so I try to find ways to avoid it. The good news is that many of these large beads have large holes.

One thing that should be kept in mind is that since the beads can sit quite a bit higher than the hook shank, you wouldn’t want to use them right before attaching a wing or veiling because it will kick those elements up. For that reason, I almost always use beads in the rear ¾’s of the fly and more often than not, right after or as the butt. That keeps the beads well away from causing trouble later. I have no set number of beads that I will use so, I put as many as I think looks good for a given fly.

If I ever get it right by Ronn Lucas, Sr.

Recently, I found that there are artists who hand make glass, ceramic and polymer beads. Some of the bead makers are fantastic artists. The beads they make are usually quite large with some having diameters in the ½” to ¾” range and larger. This presents a problem for using them for flies because such large diameters will close the hook gap too much and the high profile will kick up the wings. Some of the beads have many layers of different colors of glass and even precious metals in them so this necessitates rather large sizes. Some of these beads are known as “lampwork beads”. There are also “spacer beads” which are typically smaller and are used between the larger beads when used for jewelry. There are “furnace glass” beads which are much different than the lampwork beads and are smaller too. Furnace beads have stripes, colored cores or spiraled stripes and come in various shapes of which I find the round tubes to be most useful for flies. Polymer beads are made of a type of clay that is baked at a relatively low temperature and they remain somewhat soft.

There are beads made all over the world with many made in China and India. I generally don’t find the high quality in these beads as is found in beads from elsewhere and in particular beads made by artisans here in the US. The Chinese and Indian beads are much less expensive though and will make good accents for free style flies.

Back to the lampwork bead artists, I searched around and found several bead makers who, after explaining my requirements to, took up the challenge of downsizing their beads so I could use them in my flies.

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