Bead Thoraxed Soft Hackled Nymphs

[joaniebo]

Quite a few years ago, a fellow in Germany sent me a picture of a dressing using a wire wrapped pheasant tail body, a partridge hackle and a bead BEHIND the hackle, thus used as a thorax. For several years, I fished that dressing, and a few others, when I wanted a soft hackle to sink lower in the water.

A couple years after I started fishing these dressings, Allen McGee came out with his first book and I saw the same PT dressing in his book.

Since then, I've used various materials for the bodies and have found many of these variations to be successful. Here's a few that I tied years ago,

[letumgo]

I've got a silly (and yet serious) question. Do you think there would be any noticeable difference in effectiveness between gold beads, versus silver beads? I tend to use gold beads most often, but have wondered if the choice of a silver bead would be a better representation of an air bubble surrounding the thorax.

Anyone have an opinion on this?

[joaniebo]

Ray

I really don't know the correct answer to your question, as I started with gold beads and have used them ever since. I did try a few with a clear or red colored glass bead but I hesitated since the glass beads might break in the fish's mouth which I didn't want to happen.

A silver bead might very well make a more realistic "air bubble" but, as I mentioned, I started with gold beads and figured why change a dressing that has been so good to me.

I also haven't used copper colored wire ribbings but might switch to using the copper wires as I seem to have better luck with copper wired nymphs and I like the more subtle look of the copper wires.

Bob

PS - I also did the bead thorax bit in a P&O, P&G, etc. but didn't have much luck with those.... the plain old P&O, P&G, etc worked better without the bead!

[Bazzer69]

Ray

I really don't know the correct answer to your question, as I started with gold beads and have used them ever since. I did try a few with a clear or red colored glass bead but I hesitated since the glass beads might break in the fish's mouth which I didn't want to happen.

A silver bead might very well make a more realistic "air bubble" but, as I mentioned, I started with gold beads and figured why change a dressing that has been so good to me.

I also haven't used copper colored wire ribbings but might switch to using the copper wires as I seem to have better luck with copper wired nymphs and I like the more subtle look of the copper wires.

Bob

PS - I also did the bead thorax bit in a P&O, P&G, etc. but didn't have much luck with those.... the plain old P&O, P&G, etc worked better without the bead!

Bob, Jim Pettus, a local very good guide here, has a variety of Caddis patterns and egg patterns that use seed beads for the body, mane six on a Caddis nymph, I’ve used them in the past and never had a bead break, besides glass in inert and would pass through a fish without any injury. I consider them as a traditional material since glass seed beads were used by the native Americans many moons ago. I’m surprised they didn’t show up in early fly patterns.
Many people don’t know that you can add a brass bead to any fly by threading it on the tippet before tying on the fly. If you look the bead has a bigger resess on one side, this was what the deep side is for. I used to use it this way back in the seventies. Very effective. I only wish you could still buy plain brass beads without the shiny gold finish, once again less flash=more trout
There are plenty of published patterns that use metal beads as a thorax, but what’s wrong with a layer of lead under the body? Our forefathers used leaded salmon flies, but they didn’t have the nice fine lead wire that we do these days.
Barry

[BrkTrt]

Those are gorgeous.
Well done sir.

Alan

[RickA]

Bob,
My jaw dropped when I saw your march browns...like they came outa my box.
I'm also using a black nickle version for something more muted.
The local fish see way too many gold beaded patterns and become bling shy when the rivers run clear.
The hackle does act as a veil which helps tone it down too.

Funny... I'm not fond of the beaded P&O either
I like your style.

[joaniebo]

Four or five years ago, maybe more, I was fishing a stream in Wisconsin with three buddies. We all had walkie talkies and each time we caught a fish, we'd let the others know, via the WTs. That day, I was using nothing but the Pheasant Tail soft hackled nymph with the bead thorax.

After I caught several trout, my buddies would ask what fly I was using and I told them. Shortly thereafter, my buddies started saying "fish on" via the WTs. I asked what they were using and they all came back that they switched to the Bead Thoraxed Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle (they had raided my fly boxes earlier that morning).

Don't know why, but I gradually started using other soft hackles but will definitely tie a few more of the beaded PTs this winter as I hope my medical problems are under control and I can do more fishing next season.

Bob

[mamatried]

First time I used a bead-thoraxed SH was during a white miller hatch on the Firehole. A local gave a couple when I told him I was headed for Firehole, and he swore by them. And sure enough that fly outdid everything else on that day.
He usually fished them on the dropper with an unweighted SH on the point. A tactic I’ve since used quite a bit.

[Johnno]

I can’t equate beads with soft hackled wet flies or flymphs.
Put a bead on it and it ain’t a soft hackle.
That’s just me mind you and - as Hans W used to say- your mileage may vary...

[Roadkill]

Lovely flies and fish catchers for sure! I use several variations of thorax beads as well as bead bodies and bead heads. Given that parks like Yellowstone have banned lead, I like visible beads and wire to judge the depth where my flies may fish.