fishing beads

[Bill Babler]

Most of the time fishing beads on Taney, and I will do it from time to time, I'm either doing it with a fly rod and pencil lead or bouncing the bead on a White River Drift rig.  The fish 99% of the time will have the hook in their mouth.

The manner in which a trout feeds is it intakes water with the bait and expels the water thru the gills as the bait goes into the mouth.  Most of the bead hooked trout will have the hook in the top lip and the bead will be just above that.  At one time it was in the mouth but by tightening the line the bead will be on the outside.  The set is more of a lift and a tighten than a hook set.  If you try to jerk or snap set this the hook will pull right out of the mouth.  With patients on either the drift rig or the fly rod these fish will pretty much hook themselves.

Seems like December thru January when the rainbows are trying to spawn and full of eggs is the best, but they will eat it about anytime.  It is just a tool for the box and not a one and done type deal, the major trick is not to jerk it to be successful.

In Alaska the 1.5 inch rule is in effect to keep the fish from getting the hook to far down if the bead is further from the hook.  I don't believe we have that rule here as this presentation is not commonly used, but I'm not sure.  I just use the 1.5 that Duane stated.

My only double digit came on a bead in Alaska.

Good Luck