Slip-on Bead Head - The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference - page 429
A large number of tyers prefer this approach; it is quite simple and forms a symmetrical dressing since the hook shank runs through the center of the bead. The relation of bead size to hook size is a limitation in this method, however. The bead must have a hole large enough to accommodate the hook wire, and the bead cannot be so large that it interferes with the hook gap. Some narrowing of the gap is inevitable, however, and off-setting the hook point, as shown in Step 9, can help compensate for the smaller gap. The main sequence below shows the mounting of a counterdrilled or tapered bead, and a number of possible options—weight-ing the fly, securing the bead by “strapping” it with a strand of material, or securing the bead by abutting it with the body material. The alternate sequence shows two approaches to the slip-on mounting of straight-hole beads and the use of a rear-mounted bead-head.
Step 1. Counterdrilled beads are mounted by slipping the hook point through the smaller of the two holes, as shown here.
Step 2. The weight of the fly can be increased, and finishing the fly body simplified a bit, by taking a few turns of lead wire around the hook shank.
Step 3. The wraps of lead are then forced up inside the hole at the rear of the bead. Besides increasing the overall weight, these wraps of lead effectively decrease the diameter of the rear hole, and fewer wraps of body material are required at the back of the bead to prevent it from sliding rearward over the body.
Step 4. The most common method of securing the bead is by abutting it at the rear with body material, forcing the bead forward and pinning it against the rear of the hook eye. This approach, however, sometimes necessitates a thickness of body material at the rear of the bead that is disproportionate to the hook size. To secure the bead on a fly with a trimmer body, you can use a method shown to us by Gary LaFontaine.
Secure a strand of material to the top of the hook shank directly behind the hook eye. LaFontaine uses oval tinsel, as weʼre doing here, but monofilament line or wire will also do the job. Multiple strands of a material like Krystal Flash can be used as well, in which case this method of securing the bead closely resembles the technique for creating bead thoraxes shown in Method #101: The Bead Thorax, p. 187. Regardless of the material, the bound down butts behind the hook eye must be small enough to permit the bead to slide over them.
After securing the material, clip the thread and slide the bead over the bound-down butts and up against the rear of the hook eye, as shown.
Remount the tying thread behind the bead.
Step 5. Draw the strand of material over the top of the bead, and bind it to the hook shank, as shown. Wrap the thread directly up to the rear base of the bead to secure it in position. The rest of fly can now be dressed.
Step 6. The fly on the left has been dressed with a simple dubbed body. Note the thickness of the body directly behind the bead (which has not been plugged with lead wire). Enough body material must be applied to prevent the bead from slipping back over the body.
The fly on the right, a bead-head Prince, has a narrower body fashioned from twisted herl. A body of this type may not be thick enough to prevent the bead from sliding backward toward the tail. Forming a tapered underbody, or building up tying thread behind the bead, as shown here, will provide the width needed to secure the bead.
Step 7. Here, gold wire has been wrapped over the dubbed body and tied off. Note the exposed thread wraps used to tie-off the ribbing. Many tyers simply whip-finish or half-hitch the thread over these wraps and leave them visible on the finished fly. There are, however, a couple of techniques for concealing these thread wraps for a neater body. You can use the approach presented in Method #13: Dubbed Whip-finish, p. 24. Or you can use the technique shown here. Thinly dub a short length of tying thread. Do not twist the dubbing too tightly, it should be a bit loose.
Step 8. Wrap the dubbing over the exposed thread wraps.
Take two or three whip-finish wraps, or two or three half-hitches. When taking these wraps, lay the thread over the rear of the bead so that the thread slides down and sneaks beneath the dubbing wraps. Tighten the thread firmly to snug it further beneath the dubbing.
You can place a drop of head cement atop the bead prior to taking the finishing wraps. With each whip-finish wrap or half-hitch, drag the thread through the cement, down the bead, and beneath the dubbing. This approach avoids getting head cement on the body material, as usually happens when you attempt to apply the cement with a dubbing needle in the customary fashion.
Step 9. The effects of offsetting a hook point are debated among tyers. Some feel that an offset point offers no advantages; others are equally convinced that it improves hooking performance, particularly with narrow gaps on small hooks or gaps partially obscured by fly components such as beads.
To offset the hook point, grasp the hook “spear”—the straight portion of the hook between the point and the beginning of the bend—in a pair of needle-nose pliers. Bend it slightly, about 15 degrees, to one side. The direction of bend makes no difference, though technically speaking, if the spear is bent to the right (when viewed from the hook eye with the hook bend downward), the hook is said to be “kirbed”; if the spear is bent to the left, the hook is said to be “reversed.”
Step 1a. Some straight-hole beads may be small enough, or have large enough holes, that they can be slipped directly around the hook bend as shown in Step 1. Larger beads, however, may not slide around the relatively narrow radius of the hook bend. There are a couple of ways to address this problem.
First, you can use a pair of needle-nose pliers to bend the spear of the hook downward, decreasing the radius of the bend, as shown at the left.
Slip the bead over the hook, as shown in the middle.
Use the pliers to return the hook spear to its normal shape, as shown in the right.
This particular approach works better with some hooks than others. Some brands and styles of hooks are too brittle to tolerate this kind of bend. Slightly softer, thick-wire hooks work best, and despite appearances, this bending does not noticeably weaken the hook, and it will not bend open when a fish is hooked.
Step 2a. Darrel Martin has suggested a different approach to the problem. With a pair of needle-nose pliers, squeeze the bead so that it is no longer round, but oval. Do not squeeze so hard that you crush the bead flat and close the hole.
Step 3a. Squeezing the bead elongates the hole, providing enough additional clearance to slip the bead around the hook bend.
Step 4a. When the bead is positioned behind the eye of the hook, you can use the pliers to squeeze the bead round again, as shown on the left. Or you can position the bead to make a flattened head, as shown on the right. This flattened head also reduces the beadʼs interference with the hook gap.
Step 5a. As shown here, beads can form the head on a fly that is tied in reverse. The entire fly is dressed, and the tying thread half-hitched and clipped.
The bead is then slipped on the shank, the tying thread remounted, and a bump of thread is built at the front of the bead, as shown here, to secure it on the hook.
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