Great Beads
These are great beads. Quality is good and in addition to inverting the fly these beads are the densest beads available due to the single hole the thin edge on the edge rather than other beads that have to bore out holes through the middle. This allows the smallest bead profile for a given weight. I also like that the footprint on the hook is very small. It is possible to tie a heavy 3.5mm inverting bead on a #20 hook without the bead taking up most of the shank. Because I am lazy, instead of using super glue to fix the bead orientation as Devin demonstrates, I just cross wrap thread around the back of the bead and the hook eye. For each cross wrap over the hook eye, add about five normal wraps behind the bead and you will get a tight thread dam that snugs the bead up against the hook eye. Never had the bead rotate. Only slight downside is that the cross wraps under the bead are visible but this method is much faster than messing with glue. Only wish Tactical Fly Fisher could get these beads in the in-between sizes. As per Devin’s advice I currently use slotted beads for all the sizes in between. Haven’t found a faster way than Devin’s lead wire technique for fixing slotted bead orientation on a straight hook.
