Ambitious anglers are attending seminars and consuming literature, doing whatever it takes to improve their chances, to achieve bead fishing wizard status. In order to stay ahead of the curve, you have to be willing to experiment, and at times, grow comfortable with failure. As Mark Twain said, “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.”
The author with a wild steelhead buck caught using a 12mm peach clown soft plastic bead from BnR Tackle on the Situk River in Alaska. Shannon Martin photo
Over the last decade or so, the bead craze has swept through the Northwest like a tornado through Oz, becoming one of the most dominant steelhead presentations for coastal rivers, making jigs, worms and corkies seem like antique lures your grandpa keeps in one of those old school tackleboxes with the expanding trays. Modern tacklecrafting for steelhead has shifted gears to the point that anglers are putting their chenille and feathers in the attic to collect dust. A lot of what knowledge develops behinds closed doors and in the field is kept between friends and inner circles. However, ambitious anglers are attending seminars and consuming literature, doing whatever it takes to improve their chances, to achieve bead fishing wizard status. In order to stay ahead of the curve, you have to be willing to experiment, and at times, grow comfortable with failure. As Mark Twain said, “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.” The only way you’re going to get better at fishing is by wetting a line and seeing what works (or doesn’t).
I’ll admit that I’m no wizard. I’m often outfished by the company I keep, and not without lack of trying. Having the opportunity to attend a few of these seminars, while consuming a few of those articles and fishing with a number of guides, I started to pick up that there’s a lot of dif-ferent styles, methods and presentations such as drift fishing, bobber-dogging or float fishing. Any angler with an internet connection can find a tutorial on You-Tube. Joining a local conservation group like Northwest Steelheaders or Coastal Conservation Association, is a good excuse to attend regular meetings with guest demonstrations similar to what you might see at a fishing expo, only on a much more smaller, localized, and friendly scale. Being able to interact with the presenter face-to-face is an entirely different experience. It’s a classroom environment, and a opportunity to continue your personal angler’s education. Communicating first-hand with guest presenters creates an opportunity to fill in the gaps of what you might see in a YouTube tutorial, or even read in an article or a book.
But the fun part about the development of this knowledge is the experimentation and creativity; constantly evolving and absorbing what you can, but more importantly being able to share what you’ve found out on your own in order to speed up someone else’s learning curve. Most of the people who I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from have been generous with information, and at times conversations at small gatherings around the smoker often evolve into what was successful that provided us with the meals we’re so grateful for that evening. Those conversations tend to materialize into swap meets, where a particular pattern that seems to be effective becomes a gift of a few beads, which presents an opportunity for reciprocation the next time around.
Maximum profile, a 25mm Orange BnR Tackle soft plastic bead. Jerid Ray Doering photo
Minimal, low key profile, a 10mm “Scheele Ice” BnR Tackle soft plastic bead. Grant Scheele photo
Balanced profile (small but loud), an 8mm Spirit River “Mad Clown” hard plastic bead.
There’s a few codes I’ve unlocked from friends, guides, YouTube videos, seminars, and magazines, but some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned have come from the fish. Once a pattern stops consistently producing, it’s time to make a change, and sometimes you have to do it on the fly out in the field when your plan A for the day isn’t producing results. Be flexible, observe your environment and think like a fish.
When it matters most, being able to adapt to and mimic your environment will often improve your success rates. As winter steelhead season goes into full swing, the salmon have spawned or are still spawning and their eggs are fresh in the river. Match your bead to the skeins from the last hen you zippered for bait. Chinook eggs tend to be larger, more bright red orange berries, while Chum are slightly smaller, golden yellow orange and coho tend to be a pink orange with more variation in size. This is just the tip of the iceberg in matching the hatch with color variations. Keep in mind that there are other species of fish like largescale suckers, trout, kokanee, etc whose eggs can vary in size and color from system to system based on the forage who are laying them into the gravel. The freshest eggs are nearly transparent, while eggs that have settled to the bottom may be opaque on one side and transparent on the other, creating a “50/50” pattern. On low and clear, sunny days, being a shade off and being able to match the hatch can make the difference.
On low and clear sunny days, having something that reflects light can take priority over it being ultra-violet. Sometimes the loud profile of an ultra violet presentation is almost too much retina-burning visual noise in those conditions. One of the theories Sam Wurdinger of Dinger Jigs has behind the success of nightmare patterns is that there’s simple contrast, and even more importantly, none of the three colors used in the pattern typically react well to ultra violet light. On the other hand, in low light or low visibility conditions, creating a presentation that reacts to ultra-violet light can be crucial to offering a target that the fish can find. Decoding what colors work for the water your fishing is as simple as tying a different color on and dropping it in front of you, acknowledging your own visibility of what you’re offering the fish.
Dark profile with indirect sunlight coming from behind (partial eclipse).
Sun shining from directly behind (full eclipse).
Facing the sun.
Generally speaking while chartreuse is typically thought of as attention grabbing, darker colors will also surprisingly contrast to stirred silt or tannic, turbid water, providing a silhouette that inspires curiosity in the fish. Consider that profile matters in these situations. In his seminars, Ty Wyatt explains profile in multiple facets, mainly size and color. A bright color that demands to be seen has a large “profile” even if the bead itself is small. Profile can also be flexible in regards to size. A spin-n-glo is wider at the wings than it’s body, but when it spins, the profile is the size of the wings. The same goes for beads with plastic coatings like the Konezone Takedown spikey beads, incognito beads, clusters, or anything with an aura of sorts that adds to the complete profile. A larger bead can also have a very minimal profile. This has been demonstrated with clear soft plastic beads like BnR Tackle’s “Scheele Ice” bead, named after Grant Scheele. Bear in mind that in the ocean, baby jellyfish are essentially clear orbs that are visible due to the way they refract light. Given this theory, a bright color in a smaller size may be equal in “profile” to a subtle color in a larger size. A bright transparent color that refracts light may be a more subtle profile than a dull, opaque color that contrasts the substrate or river bottom. The reflection, refraction, and absorbtion of light, as well as the reflection of color all contribute to this concept of profile. One could also argue that scent is another addition to pro-file, even if it’s not something that is necessary visualized. In theory, profile is the sum of all factors that increase visibility.
Availability of light and the depth of the area you’re fishing are relevant to visibility of your color choices. Visibility range varies by color at different depths, and the distance your presentation might be visible to the nearest fish, meaning that the range of visibility can be effected differently by both vertical and horizontal distances in the water. The angle of light and combination of light and color play a role in visibility and profile. Water can potentially absorb or block light of different wavelengths, causing colors in the spectrum to vanish as white light from the sun travels and diminishes through different depths in the water column. This absorption is greater for longer wavelengths on the red end of the spectrum, and shorter for wavelengths on the blue end of the spectrum.
In some instances where a profile is backlit and creates a silhouette, the presence of color is less relevant. It’s a visibility theory that’s been present in bass tournaments with murky water conditions for decades. At a Sport Shows seminar in Portland, Oregon, Roger Hinchcliff referred to this phenomenon as the “eclipse” of the bead; meaning that as visibility becomes poor, there is a breaking point where color does not matter, because the visibility of the bead is created by blocking light as a shadow rather than reflecting it as a color. Hinchcliff believes that fish key in on the profile by the light it blocks between a fish’s vision and the light source, the bead being like a planet moving into the sun’s path. In theory, a black bead should be just as effective as a bright, shiny, UV color bead. Regardless, any color bead should block light by the same principle (with the exception of clear or a transparent color that refracts light). To test Roger’s theory, I took a series of selfies at the river on a sunny day. The details of my facial features became were least distinguishable (including color) with a backlit profile. As the blinding light was blocked by the presence of my noggin, my facial features became somewhat distinguishable. With light reflecting directly off me, all the details of my facial features became vivid.
“Blood dot” embryo eggs from a steelhead. Brad Melville photo
This Alsea River hatchery steelhead fell for a Blood Dot pattern Cleardrift soft bead... twice. Notice the identical rigging from where it broke the leader with a similar pattern tied on earlier in the day.
“Blood dot” embryo eggs from a hen steelhead harvested on the Alsea River. These eggs were exposed to air in damp weather and are 1-2 days old, giving off
a more opaque “dead egg” coloration.
If you really want to expand on the Eclipse theory, deep-water and long distance color shifts, reflection, refraction, how certain lights and colors interact, brightness, flourescence and phosphorescence, check out the book “What Fish See” by Dr. Colin Kageyama. The author is an optometrist and lure designer for Mepps/Mister Twister. For visual representation, Kageyama studied the science of aquatic color theory by placing color charts and lures at different depths under various water clarity and light conditions. As in depth as this book is about beads, Dr. Kageyama’s text is an extremely detailed breakdown of underwater optics.
Enter the 3rd quarter of the winter steelhead game, many of them have spawned, and their small, transparent yellow orange eggs are also in the river with developing salmon eggs. Some of these salmon eggs will have an embryo that resembles a sunny-side up steelhead breakfast. These “blood-dot” salmon eggs can sometimes be a ticket even earlier in the season, depending on the timing of the previous salmon runs. Other salmon eggs are further developing, giving a visual of a cloudy hue, or dead and opaque. A mottled bead or even a pastel can resemble eggs at these stages. A bead with two black spots or marks on it can resemble an eyed-egg. There will be a mix of various patterns that the fish in the river are feeding on, and once there are menu options available, individual fish begin to develop their own preferences. Sometimes all the conditions can be right and set in place, but maybe a fish prefers a cloudy dead-egg pattern over a freshie. Or maybe a developed eyed egg over a blood dot. While you may have to sort through some boots to find a chromer, offering them something that’s familiar to their late arrival in the season can be a crucial component to being productive enough to turn a few back and be choosy about your keepers.
There’s lots of different types of beads, hard plastic, acrylic, soft plastic, foam, hard/soft plastic hybrids, rubber, etc. Not all beads are created equal, they differ in texture, buoyancy, and in some cases, shelf life. Different manufacturers create products with different specs, such as the hole sizes, which make the technical aspects of rigging a little more complicated, creating a bit of a learning curve. This book aims to be a guide for decoding those adjustments to the specifics of each individual manufacturer or type of bead.
Contents from the stomach of an adult steelhead feeding on fertilized “eyed” eggs. Brad Melville photo
“Eyed” eggs from the stomach contents of an adult steelhead. These eggs were actually living and captively hatched as yolk sac fry while being stored in a glass jar. Brad Melville photo
Fry patterned soft plastic beads made by Todd Kramer of Never Quit Fishing.
One of the most important decisions you’ll ever have to make when choosing the right bead is the choice not to use a bead at all. For those of us who devout believers and place our faith in the plethora of bead related techniques, it can be transformative to watch another angler walk into a hole you’ve been fishing for hours and pull a fish out on the first cast with a spinner.
As Timothy Leary once said, “When you get the message, hang up the phone.”
Regardless of all these factors that often come into play, most of these concepts are merely theories, and in most cases they’re not scientifically proven to be effective. Sometimes one thing works when it shouldn’t and there’s no real explanation for it. Sometimes what always seems to work can’t buy a bite. That mystery is what makes us keep casting though. In the book Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan wrote, “Science demands a tolerance for ambiguity. Where we are ignorant, we withhold belief. Whatever annoyance uncertainty engenders serves a higher purpose. It drives us to accumulate better data.” Put some of your own theories to the test, take notes, and develop your own data. However, while we’re devoting such great energy into minor details, it’s important to remind ourselves that the fish we’re after often have a brain as small as the pea-sized presentation we’re trying to feed them, so don’t overthink it.
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