Alaska flies part 1

[jdmidwest]

The famous Alaska Trout bead. The ultimate lure for trout and dollies. Designed to imitate a single egg, a single fertilized egg that has started turning white. To fish it, you can peg it on the line above the hook. Depending on the stream or area you fish, where you peg it is important, the distance that is legal varies. Some parts it is not legal at all. It can be as deadly as bait. The trips to Alaska are strictly catch and release for any species other than salmon and pike for us. Last time we caught and released several trout in the Kenai that had been released several times. 30" to 36" fish were on every hour. The dollies were good sized and very colorful. The fish move into the rivers to feed on the eggs and the rotting flesh of the salmon. Like the bears, they gorge themselves to make it through the harsh winters.

The beads are craft store beads in 6mm and 8mm, pink, red, or orange. They are then painted with nail polish to give them the white color. Everyone of the native alaskans have their own theories and formulas on the paint scheme. This one worked well last time.

Heres mine.

- Faceted craft beads, orange, 6mm or 8mm

- Love My Nails Platinum nail polish

[Terry Beeson]

JD,

I was shown that a couple of years ago by a fellow from Pennsylvania. It worked well with some kids about 6-8 inches above a San Juan Worm on Dry Run Creek...

Since it has worked for a bigger kid on occasion in the Norfork and Bull Shoals tailwaters...

[vince]

JD Why peg the bead above the hook? Do you snag the fish ? How does the hook get in their mouth?

[Terry Beeson]

Vince,

The idea is that the bead "egg" is an attractor to get the fish's attention. Then they will go for the fly that follows. They sometimes will try to take the bead and then spit it out. It is effective, believe me...

[jdmidwest]

You are right, the hook enters their mouth and if they spit the bead, you hook them. The right amount of spacing prevents from hooking too deep and hurting the fish. So effective that some streams have regs on them. Amazingly, the damage was minimal to the fish, I did not kill any or have any gill hooked. The only foul hooked fish were the salmon that were on the redds. Then, you would just pull the hook off with some rotting fish flesh attached to it. We were there just as the reds were starting to die, they would beach themselves or drift down into pools. I have never tried them locally, never had the opportunity of fishing a shoal with hundreds of spawning reds in MO or ARK. In AK, the rainbows and the dollies fatten up well on the eggs and the carcasses during the spawn. In Sept, their bellies look like they are going to pop. You catch a fish and they puke eggs up on you.

The other post has the pics, this one happened by accident on my slow dialup.

[AKflyfisher]

man This Is VERY effective way to fish for trout in alaska, I have had many 60+ fish days fishing with beads. The fish take beads so fast they almost hook themselves. I never used a Indicator and I just waited for my line to stop moving and lifted up the rod tip and their you go fish on. these beads are frowned apon by most purist but they are way more fish freindly then globugs fish will swallow globugs becasue the suck them up like a vacume and gut hook them some times, not with beads. My favorite way to paint them is with spray paint and a paper bag. YOu take a paper bay sray white spray paint into it and dump your beads into the bag shake and dump you will get great milted bead. Also check out troutbeads.com they sell beads better then the hex craft store ones

[Zach Bearden]

I find this wrong... Its not a fly unless its put on the hook... I realize that this is a heated discussion in Fly Fishing right about now but still... I find it wrong because

1. its not on the hook

2. its plastic...

3. there is no thead... I have used a gummy minnow but didnt like it because it may have been crafted but not with thread like a traditional fly...

4. if it were a normal fly and the fish spits it then you miss it... but with this you can still hook them... ( if you bring up tandem hooks heres my 2 cents in on it... Its IN the fly not off of it. So therefor it is part of the FLY)

Sorry for the rant but I just dont like the idea of a plastic bead OFF of the hook...

I have read that they will put up to 4 people in the front of a boat and just hang the bead over the side and hook the fish...

If I was going to alaska (or anywhere for that matter I ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT let my guide peg a bead on there...

did I mention that its not on the hook?

JD or anyone else who uses this method of fishing I dont mean to downsize you for using this... If you do I say go ahead and keep on fishing it. If its your style do it, Ive seen people (that say they were fly fishing) use powerbait on the end of their fly rod and plunk it out there... Is it flyfishing? This is just my take on the matter and dont mean to downsize ANYBODY. Thanks for reading my post...

[jdmidwest]

Technically not a fly, but it works. And as AKflyfisher stated, low mortality rates. I used barbless hooks and released all fish. The only fish we kept were the salmon. I am watching Jeff Corwin on Katmai fishing the same way and guess what he is using. A pegged bead about 4" above the hook. I am not going all the way up there to not catch fish because of a purist outlook. I will fish the bead where legal. It will not be the only fly in my boxes, just the most effective.

Some places require it to be a part of the hook and then they will be tied on with thread. Just another part of the Alaska experience. I would suggest the trip to any fisherman that is serious about his sport.

And because you have to paint the beads I consider them just to be like any other pattern. I carve and paint balsa lures and mold soft plastics. I custom paint spoons and rooster tails and tie dressings on the hooks.

I will post more patterns when I get caught up, just a little busy now.

[AKflyfisher]

I dont pegg my bead at all or I peg it about 1-0inches away from my hook so. Zach if you dont like it then dont fish it but I see no diference of fishing a bead then fishing a foam hopper their both plastic.

[Phil Lilley]

I started fishing beads in Michigan. But they are deadly in AK. Jims started using them this week in Margot Creek and they caught Dollies on every cast up to 9 pounds. http://troutbeads.com has some great new colors... you don't have to paint them anymore with fingernail polish. We use them on fly rod and spin rod. I used them with Jim's kids last year drifting them on a drift rig down a fast shoot and caught fish on every drift, rainbows and salmon.

On the Naknek, you have to have something on the hook, thread or something. Can't fish a bare hook. Also, you can't peg the bead more than (I think) one inch.