The Magic of Trout Beads

Understanding when, where and how to use Trout Beads will help you hook more fish in the rivers.  To really understand a system’s secrets – how it changes in certain seasons, which fish travel through it and what hatches will happen or in which stretch of river – can take a lifetime of research and hard-core fishing.  Dialing in on the right colour, size and presentation of bead arrangement can sometimes get a bit confusing, leaving anglers with a lack of confidence.

One of my favorite times of year to fish is when the sockeye are on the redds because the bull trout, rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and dolly varden fishing is off the hook.  I don’t fish tons of different fly patterns.  My fly box has four or five flies in different sizes and colours that I consider my go-to patterns.  I also choose my pattern depending on the time of year.  I tie some flies with no weight for a free drifting presentation and tie others with massive weight like a .030 lead wrap to get down in the depths of high water.

I first started fishing with egg patterns, which were known as glo bugs back then, and graduated to Gormans Caballero, a pattern that looks like an egg and skein.  It is a heavy bug tied up with a gold bead on the head, followed by a chenille body and fine pieces of wool draping over it’s gooey goodness.  This pattern could take anything from bull trout to steelhead at certain times of the year.  Steelhead and bulls that are on the same system will devour a single egg presentation.  However, the only problem with Gorman’s Caballero is that it falls apart quickly.  The fish’s teeth rip it up, so the numerous false casts loosen it and eventually unravel its round shape to a string of chenille.

A few years ago, my fishing partner gave me a container filled with trout beads.  For those of you that haven’t heard of these magic creations, anglers in Alaska first used them to catch big rainbows that fed on salmon eggs.  Trout beads come in three sizes and a variety of colours.  With so much selection, anglers can easily match what the fish are taking at the time.  You can use them all year round, but the best time is when fish are on the egg.  This is usually the time when salmon get choked up like wood cord in our rivers.  Since each salmon species has its own individual size and colour of egg, fish can be very picky.  Chinook, for example, have a large orange egg that is much bigger than the Chums but close in colour.  Sockeye, on the other hand, have a pink egg but the colour can change depending on how long it is in the water because dead eggs floating downriver can rot and turn a brownish colour.

Egg colour can change daily, but Trout Beads can give you the upper hand in matching what’s going on in the river.  The beads are available in containers filled with every colour under the sun or individual packs of your choice.  Ever since my friend gave me that first container, I’ve never gone back to my Gorman’s Caballero because trout beads are much more durable, cheaper to use and easier to cast.

There are many different ways to rig trout beads.  Some anglers are huge on pegging the eggs.  This is done by simply stringing the bead on to your leader and inserting a toothpick in to the top.  This way of fishing is best for catch and release because the fish takes the egg and not the hook.  As soon as the fish slurps up the egg, tension is applied to the line, the egg slips down the monofilament and the hook penetrates the outside cheek of the fish.  It decreases the mortality rate because the internal parts of the fishs mouth, specifically the gills, are not touched.  That said, the beads do not need to be pegged to fish them.  In my experience, there has been no loss of fish when fishing them unpegged, especially when the fish were handled correctly and barbless hooks were used.

When I have novice clients, I’ll rig trout beads on a good weight forward line.  I recommend Rio’s Outbound fly line, as it can handle a lot of weight and pitch a strike indicator accurately without fouling the line.  To rig it this way,  I’ll use a long 16 foot leader and the large Dragonfly quick release strike indicator , in orange for easier visibility on bright days and flourescent yellow in low-light conditions.The two BB split shots are fixed two to three feet from the trout bead or shorter in dirty water, and the trout bead is placed on the monofilament before the hook.  This method is ideal for novice fly-fishers because it doesn’t need the weight or strike indicator.

The hook I prefer most is the DNE barbless.  It is sharp and strong, eliminating downtime spent sharpening hooks for clients.  I use a floating line, shot weight if necessary and the proper trout bead to match the egg.  I keep suitable line tension on my fly line to ensure a drag free drift.

The best time to use trout beads is sockeye season.  Some of the best places I fish have loads of sockeye, so trout and dollies stack up behind them gulping up every morsel that comes by.  Bring your five weight outfit for some awesome fishing.

Trout beads are not just for fly fishermen.  All anglers can use these techniques by drifting beads under a float.  The rigging is done the same way you would drift fish, but with trout beads as your presentation.  Spice up your trout bead with a few strands of wool to act as an egg and skein in January and February, when the rivers in the Fraser Valley get low and clear, as steelhead take to faster pockets of water.

Every river has its secrets.  Run timing is the key to success when fishing trout beads because the most productive time to fish them is when the run peaks.  While colour and size are big deciding factors when choosing your presentation, trout beads have an egg for every application.

Garry Elgear

This article can be found in the September/October 2007 issue of BC Outdoors.