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Whilst beads used in fly tying are made from a variety of materials. There are basically two types.

The first are beads that we use in fly tying that were designed for other purposes such as jewelry beads. They come in a rang of shapes and sizes and generally the opening at each end of the bead is the same size. Much of the time they have limited application because the hole width to length ration means that its difficult and in many cases impossible to slide the bead round the bend of the hook.

Many of these beads do however have an appropriate application and a couple of examples are highlighted below.

BMS (Bullen Marri Special)

Salty BMS

Specifically designed fly tying beads are quite different to beads manufactured for the jewelry industry in that most fly tying beads have a large opening at one end and a smaller opening at the other. This makes it much easier to load the bead onto the hook. If you slide the bead onto the point of the hook small opening first the wider opening at the rear makes it easier to slide the bead round the bend of the hook whilst ensuring a snug fit behind the eye of the eye of the hook.

Bead head nymphs

Woolly bugger variants

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