Just got back from the bead store...

[nicklenuts]

Quick story -- because man do I feel a little too feminine admitting that I spent over an hour in a friggin bead shop.

But next to the gym where I go there is a bead shop with all Kinds of feathers and what not in the window, and it's never open in the early mornings when I'm there -- but went this weekend and was blown away at the amount of fly fishing materials for CHEAP. I stocked up on several size and color beads for 3 bucks each, thousands Of beads. They even have these glass chartreuse beads with silver interiors.... Perfect for this beaded streamer I'm tying for bass and crappie in this private lake I am lucky enough to be able to fish. And they had bags of feathers there for 4 bucks unlike anything I've ever seen in a fly shop. Really cool stuff. The peacock was overpriced, but is was really nice quality - still I skipped that one.

But on my way out I spotted these bags of craft fur and wool - 5 heaps of colors for 12 dollars. Now I got a small bag of sculpin wool at BPS for 4.50 and the amount of material was half as much... Total score at the bead shop.

Here is a colored up sculpin I tied with the wool and some feathers ought to fish just fine. The caddis and chart streamer are not mine, but I tied similar patterns up using these as reference

Love the iPhone app too Denny, btw

 

[GARYB]

Give Simms the address

 

[nicklenuts]

Give Simms the address

I have to admit -- that's what caused me to write about this in the first place. I don't understand the backlash to using beads around here. Articulated streamers with a bead or two in between -- don't see the difference between that and using rubber legs on a stonefly.

At some point I can appreciate the caution, using bass skirts and spinners on the fly -- you might as well be spin fishing. but incorporating some beads into your recipes I don't see a problem with it.

There was a time I didnt use rubber legs, but frankly after last year when I basically caught every fish out of every pocket where I thought they might be on a variation of Pat's Rubber Legs..... I'm open to trying new things. Hence the krazy legs on the streamer pictured below. I think it'll fish

 

[GARYB]

IMHO if you are using a bead as a salmon egg........you might as well use real ones, unless you
are using them to snag fish.