Alternatives to beads

[Trout Of Doubt]

Being of a traditional leaning, I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for viable alternatives to bead heads using more traditional materials?

[BRUCE1]

do you mean purely as a weight perspective without a bead or something to totally replace the bead ??

[ACW]

Buy a bottle of damm fine claret,with a proper lead foil capsule on top,remove the lead foil carefully ,this can be cut into strips and used to create a leaded under boidy.
simply dub over ,oh and by the way send the bottle carefully wrapped to me
this was the way we used to get our bugs to sink in the 60s and seventys !

[fishfinger]

fuse wire or any kinda thin wire .

[maharg]

Originally Posted by ACW

Buy a bottle of damm fine claret,with a proper lead foil capsule on top,remove the lead foil carefully ,this can be cut into strips and used to create a leaded under boidy.
simply dub over ,oh and by the way send the bottle carefully wrapped to me
this was the way we used to get our bugs to sink in the 60s and seventys !

What age were you in the sixties Andy, were you not still in your pram!!!!!!!!!!

[ACW]

1960s was my teens,was the late 60s I started fly fishing and flydressing.
Most wine bottles in those days had decent lead ,the fineones had the best.
These days I use the square lead ,rarely use beads myself !

[3lbgrayling]

Graham.Andy and myself are of the same vintage.
I strip the lead foil from good malt whisky bottles.

Jim

[diawl bach]

Originally Posted by idris

Being of a traditional leaning, I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for viable alternatives to bead heads using more traditional materials?

How about getting the flies down with a light sinking line, for example a dt 4 sinker from shakespeare. Not so good in a fast run but on a slow glide or a stillwater you can get the depth without losing the movement of a lighter fly.

[Trout Of Doubt]

I was thinking in terms of replacing the bead directly.
Whisky bottle lead I already have in my tying box. It's the only reason I drink the vile spirit

As I understand it the beads are also used as a hot spot to attract the fish. I know this goes completely against my traditional imitation tendancies, but purely in the interests of research (and desperation when nothing is going right) I was wondering whether some gold tinsel could be incorporated into the head somehow.

[3lbgrayling]

My friend Duncan uses Mirage as a hotspot on his flamethrower salmon flies,very effective.He ties the head with thread as usual then covers the thread head with Mirage.

Jim