On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:20:55 -0600, rw
wrote:

Dave LaCourse wrote:

A guide dreamed up the bead method. You slip a colored glass bead
onto the end of your leader (represents the egg/spawn and can be
colored with finger nail polish to match whatever salmon pattern you
are targeting).

Forget about the fingernail polish. Visit http://www.troutbeads.com/.

Actually the fingernail polish is still used. You start out with a
solid colored bead and either lighten or darken it depending upon the
eggs in the stream you are fishing. None of the beads I have fished
with were a solid color, but have their color altered in some way with
finger nail polish. Some of the guides were very picky about how the
color should be altered.

You then tie a short piece of tippet to you leader
(double surgeon's knot is fine), slide the bead down to the knot and
hold it there by placing a tooth pick in the bead (and breaking off
the tooth pick's end). You then tie a hook onto the other end (four
to five inches) of the tippet.

The extra tippet and knot aren't necessary. The toothpick works just
fine by itself. Stick it in the hole, clip it off with your nippers (you
need sharp nippers) and jam the remainder down into the bead with your
forceps. It helps to treat the toothpicks ahead of time with rubber cement.

BTW, Dave, ADFG Bristol Bay Alaska regulations require the bead to be
either free-floating or no more than two inches from the hook. If you
were fishing in Bristol Bay with a bead four or five inches from the
hook you were breaking the law.

We weren't breaking the law. The hook was very close to the bead,
probably less than two inches. I used four or five when I tried it
with the sucker spawn. I found the knot useful in stoping the bead
from slipping.

You see the take when the rainbow hits the bead, set the hook which
pulls the bead out of the fish's mouth and brings the hook into the
mouth. Voila! Big rainbow on an egg pattern with the hook in its
upper jaw.

Its an extremely effective technique, not only for rainbows, but also
for char and grayling. Some people call it snagging.

True. I took dozens of very large Dollies with the method, and of
course, the damned grayling.

I don't think it's much different from fishing two or more nymphs.
Often, the fish will take the top nymph, you'll miss the hook set, and
you'll "snag" the fish, often on the outside of the mouth, with the
bottom nymph.

I usually tie on a glow bug instead of a bare hook.

Or a PT. Moffit would never come close to the fly du jur. I won't
use it again on the Rapid. It seems ok by me to use it in Alaska, but
I got the feeling that I was snagging those big brookies and landlocks
on the Rapid. Heading back up there in the morning with lots of soft
hackle stuff. River is running high, so fishing will probably be off.

Dave