Bead Hegemony

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billems
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Bead Hegemony

#1

Post by billems »

I know that nymph fishing with beadheads is the prevelant method of fly fishing. But I was agog when I visited the site First Drift Fly Company. A perusal of their patterns for sale occupied endless pages of beadheads. I checked out the wet fly column--all beadheads, no spiders. So I lastly checked out the dry fly page. They had exactly FOUR patterns: three variations of elk hair caddis and a parachute adams. Things have really gone to the extreme.

driftless angler
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#2

Post by driftless angler »

More evidence that the end times are near! :)

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henkverhaar
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#3

Post by henkverhaar »

Whatever happened to the good old Killer bug ;-)

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kevinhaney1
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#4

Post by kevinhaney1 »

Yes, the modern industry is all about the latest trend. That's why I like what a guy said I recently met who's been fly fishing for 60 years. He said he almost always fishes wet flies and doesn't fish any pattern that was invented after he was born.

Kevin
Kevin Haney, Vintage Anglers
http://www.vintageanglers.com

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quashnet
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#5

Post by quashnet »

The wide gap hooks on those nymphs look just right for attaching some PowerBait. Be sure to use "urine-stained red fox vixen belly fur" color during the Hendrickson hatch.
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GerardH
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#6

Post by GerardH »

I was taken to task elsewhere for a tongue-in-cheek quip I made about the "dark arts"....though it wasn't quite so tongue-in-cheek in reality since I very much avoid using jigs except in times of utter madness.

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Short Tip
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#7

Post by Short Tip »

Looks like I won't be able to rely on "First Drift Fly Company" to fill my needs. Oh well. I don't have that many needs anyway.

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GrsdLnr
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#8

Post by GrsdLnr »

IMO chucking beadheads reminds me of the old Seinfeld line - "...not that there's anything wrong with that..." >:D
In our family there was no clear line between psychotherapy and flyfishing...

jim royston
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#9

Post by jim royston »

So, if you wrap fuse wire around a hookshank to get the fly down to where the fish are, than you ought to be fishing beadheads.

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BigTJ
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#10

Post by BigTJ »

Small operation that is obviously focused on euro style nymphing. Euro subsurface methods don’t really incorporate dries so why would one expect them to have a bunch of dry flies? It seems unfair to (possibly unintentionally) bash what seems like a decent operation just because it’s not your cup of tea. I tie and fish a lot of the patterns listed in First Drift’s catalog and can say they are great flies particularly in winter, early spring and late fall when nothing much is going on up top.

John
Last edited by BigTJ on 10/04/22 14:52, edited 1 time in total.

barebo
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#11

Post by barebo »

I remember perusing the popular sporting magazines in the late 60's and 70's and Orvis always had an ad that stated "90 percent of a trout's diet is on the bottom" or something along that sentiment. I have to wonder why it is discussed so frequently and disparaged by some and defended by others?

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Brooks
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#12

Post by Brooks »

Brooks wrote:
10/04/22 16:58
barebo wrote:
10/04/22 15:56
I remember perusing the popular sporting magazines in the late 60's and 70's and Orvis always had an ad that stated "90 percent of a trout's diet is on the bottom" or something along that sentiment. I have to wonder why it is discussed so frequently and disparaged by some and defended by others?
Tradition, ethics, restraint.
Some think those things are important. Others don’t, “it’s just fishing, don’t over think it.”

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Brooks
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#13

Post by Brooks »

Sorry for the multiple posts. iPhone snafu i guess—don’t know how to delete the extras….

HexaMaineiac
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#14

Post by HexaMaineiac »

My love for soft hackles came out my distaste for nymphing, effective but graceless.
Disclaimer, I suck at nymphing, plus it’s best done with long graphite rods.

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BigTJ
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#15

Post by BigTJ »

HexaMaineiac wrote:
10/05/22 05:11
Disclaimer, I suck at nymphing, plus it’s best done with long graphite rods.
Bamboo rods are fantastic for dropper dry presentations, and it’s pretty hard to beat a bead head as a dropper. It’s a type of nymphing. Nymphing is not just for long graphite rods. Bamboo rods are also great for the PA school of slack line nymphing. Targeted sub-surface emerger or drifting nymph presentations are another. My opinion is that a lot of bamboo rod focused fishermen haven’t put in the time to figure out what nymphing techniques the rods are suited to and so they just default to the easy and familiar - dries and soft hackles - and turn up their noses at other techniques, not because they don’t work with bamboo rods, but because they just don’t know how they work. Successful nymphing with bamboo (and no indicators) is actually more challenging and takes more skill than either dries or soft hackles, both the casting and the drift. Fishing dry flies or soft hackles to unselective trout is about the easiest way to fly fish there is.

As far as nymphing being graceless I agree to disagree. It can be very graceful. Targeted emerger / nymph sight fishing to those sipping trout that that are often misinterpreted are taking dries but are really taking nymphs is a really good example. How many times I’ve heard “they wouldn’t take my dry” when a nymph would have resulted in a heyday I can’t count.

Expsp4043
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#16

Post by Expsp4043 »

I guess I'm the most graceless guy here! I fish nymphs about 90 percent of the time. I like catching fish, and do quite often.
MIKE

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quashnet
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#17

Post by quashnet »

I don't think that anyone here is arguing against nymph fishing. Certainly I'm not doing so. My angling journal reminds me that in October exactly forty years ago, when I made my first trip to Vermont's Battenkill River, upstream nymphing worked wonders on both brown and brook trout. But when I fish my Paul H. Young nine-foot Nymph Rod, built in 1949 of natural materials expressly for the purpose of nymph fishing, I like to use nymphs tied with natural materials that wouldn't have looked out of place in the fly box of an angler at that time. For the most part these are tied sparsely, with heavy-wire hooks, so they sink well. But I'm sure that I have a few beadhead Prince Nymphs or Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ears in one of my fly boxes. I'm sorry if anyone was offended by my comment. There's no prohibition here on discussing any modern fly styles, as there is on the subject of fiberglass or graphite rods.
Please visit and bookmark the Paul H. Young Rod Database
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billems
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#18

Post by billems »

henkverhaar wrote:
10/04/22 10:47
Whatever happened to the good old Killer bug ;-)
I tie 'em.

billems
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#19

Post by billems »

Expsp4043 wrote:
10/05/22 11:56
I guess I'm the most graceless guy here! I fish nymphs about 90 percent of the time. I like catching fish, and do quite often.
MIKE
Nothing wrong with it. It's just, "c'mon, don't forget dries completely!"

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DrLogik
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Re: Bead Hegemony

#20

Post by DrLogik »

Funny how things change. Appliance makers couldn't sell enough countertop convection ovens so they invented and marketed the "Air Fryer", which has become all the rage with the young crowd. The Air Fryer is a euphemism for Convection Oven, because that's all it is.

I predict that in 20 years some young cat will invent a way to make a better fly with natural materials and will be looked upon as a genius.

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