To Bead or not to Bead!

When I'm fishing a competition I usually use rigs which have beads and sequins. Sometimes people with plain rigs outfish me. Is it that I am putting the beads on in a wrong order or is there some species that are put off by flashy rigs? Does anyone know any successful bead combinations?

how are u George. their will be trouble over this one! beads/ flasher blades/ sequins and even spinner blades can increase catches at times. as an experiment i deliberately didn't fish with them at times when i would have normally used them, and catches went down. the best way to find if they work is to fish with the beads on the middle snood of a three hook flapper. some days the fish will continously take the middle hook under the beads. i found this typical of flatties, particularly in 'clear' seas. sequencing beads is good, go for contrasting colours...ie, black and glow in the dark/ yellow. regardless of what colours a fish sees they do see silhuettes. lure anglers will tell u that. likewise the reflected light from an attractor blade, i am sure, shines like a beacon underwater! some people will tell you that beads are rubbish and that fish will not see them under the water. the same people often use clear line for their hooklengths so that the fish will not see them?!!?? coloured lines can also be used as an attractor, red for flounder, yellow for dab. again try it on the middle snood of your rig and see for yourself. the last time i fished greystones, i alternated between an over the top beaded flasher rig, and rigs without. i caught everything on the fancy rig and not even a bite on the other rigs. baits were the same, rigs were of the same design and distances cast were the same. some say that fish will smell the bait before they see it which is fair enough, but using beads, etc. can INDUCE MORE TAKES. i remember fishing off the bridge in Dollymount before. on calm autumn days u can see an odd flounder at low tide. i remember one such fish which i had dropped my rig in front of. it was no more than two foot away from my baited hook. i watched his reaction to the bait. it was only when the wind bobbed my line and the sequins above the hook gave off a bit of flash that the flounder responded to the bait, inching towards it. when the bait went static again the flounder stopped, similar to a cat chasing a ball of wool! eventually he took the hook.........piont is beads/ sequins help advertise the bait. they exagerate the move of the bait and that can be important. at the end of the day fish don' t eat beads, etc (most of the time!). u will catch plenty of fish without them. however, there are definately times when they give you the edge.

I know many top match anglers who swear by using beads . As for sequins i use them on all of my rigs as a bait stop as well as a attractor . Some days beads they work better than others so the most important thing is to be prepared for everything . In my rig wallet you will always find a few rigs with beads on them .

i am surprised that somebody actually agrees! forgot to say that beads, etc. are another trick up your sleeve, just like the ability to cast a long distance. they are not necessary but help. personally speaking, my rig wallets are full of simple rigs (bead free). however i have always got a a selection of the same rigs that have been 'spiced up' for use when conditions allow/ demand. i remember flyfishing on the river blackwater in cavan. i had a coarse rod with me too. i had taken 1 or 2 fish on each during the day. but when i fshed a single maggot on the hook of one of my attractor flies my catch rate shot up............

I wouldnt dream of fishing my three hook without beads!
I dont even want to try it to be sure its the best way....thats how sure I am of it! I done something similar to mb3.....tried fishing with and without beads, this was a couple of years ago.....on average i got 3 more fish per session than i would not using beads. That in itself speaks volumes, to me anyways. Who dared to bring this topic up :wink: