Fished the past weekend on the Clearwater River in Orofino, ID with a friend, but unfortunately the main river was blown out running well over 20,000 cfs and our usually spots were all unfishable. We went to plan B and fished the Northfork below Dworshak Dam and so did everybody else. Lots of people, but also lots of fish, and they were jumping and rolling everywhere. I only managed to hook, land and release 1 wild fish on Saturday and my friend was skunked. Three guys that fished right next to us absolutely slayed them fishing with beads under a float. They probably hooked at least 20 steelhead between them and it was very humbling and frustrating for me to witness, but at the same time I used it as a valuable lesson and learned a lot about the presentation of a bead used under a float. I realized right there and then that I've been fishing wrong with beads for the past 3 years! I didn't realize that the bead presentation could greatly improve your success just by how it is rigged under the float. The next day my friend and I used that new information about bead fishing and applied it on the exact same hole. Our luck turned around and we landed four keepers out of 6 takedowns for just the morning bite. One thing I love about steelhead fishing is you learn something all the time that keeps drawing you back to the river. If your headed down to the Clearwater River, expect very high flows and unfishable waters unless your fishing the Northfork or Southfork, but there are still a lot fish.

afk

3/22/2012 5:33:00 PM

May I ask how a bead is rigged? I've only ever fished jigs. Thanks Andy

tnga

3/22/2012 8:17:00 PM

Fishing a bead under a float can be very similar to rigging a jig. Usually, an octopus style hook is tied with an egg loop knot and a bead is pegged 1-3 inches above the hook. The bead can be pegged on the line by a toothpick or you can tie a special knot, which you can find on the internet. Lastly, splitshot is usually placed 12-24 inches above the bead. There are a lot of variations to this rigging, but this is a general explanation that you can modify to fit your own fishing needs. Hope it helps.

KCDEIFE

3/23/2012 9:06:00 AM

I have a 1 oz weight with a 3 to 4 foot leader. hook at the bottom of the leader and bead pegged with a toothe pick ~2 inches above the hook which is black. I add 1 or 2 split shots depending on the river flows ~ 8 to 12 inches above the bead. The bead is a 8mm or 10mm bead and I change size and colors until I find one that works.

How where the guys on the N fork rigging theirs?

tnga

3/23/2012 12:07:00 PM

They were rigging their setup so that the splitshot was touching the bottom, thus making the bead bounce up and down off the bottom. This subtle difference really made the steelhead crazy over their presentation versus mine, which had the bead suspended in the water column very close to the bottom.

KCDEIFE

3/23/2012 4:59:00 PM

I never thought of trying that. Probably get hung up a lot but beads are cheap.

KCDEIFE

3/23/2012 5:00:00 PM

Can you post a picture of the setup or email it to me at kdeife@live.com

tnga

3/23/2012 5:36:00 PM

When I first started bead fishing with a float I too never thought about letting the bead bounce off the bottom. I was use to fishing with jigs and I never let them touch the bottom intentionally because of getting hung up or getting "salad" on my jig, which never seems to get bit. However, this past weekend changed my mind and beads bouncing on the bottom greatly increase your success rate. If you think about it, beads resemble free flowing single eggs and they're bouncing on the bottom all the time. You do get hung up more frequently with this technique, but if you adjust the amount of splitshot to water conditions you can keep the bead bouncing off the bottom more, thus keeping your bead more in the strike zone. When conditions are right beads can outfish jigs easily and I'm gaining more confidence in them with every fishing trip.

KCDEIFE

3/23/2012 5:47:00 PM

I am with you, beads are better than jigs. I am just curious as how to rig them. How many/size of split shots? How far is the hook and bead above the split shots?

A picture is worth a 1000 words? Are you planning any trips? Maybe we can fish together and split gas costs. I will give you all the fish I catch.

tnga

3/23/2012 8:00:00 PM

Thanks for the offer, but I'm unfortunately near the end of my season for steelhead. My wife has a long honey-do list for me to do and a friend keeps begging me for one more steelhead trip. I don't know if I'll be able to get down there anymore before the end of the season, but fishing should remain good until the end of April. Maybe we can get together in the Fall for a Steelhead trip.

afk

3/24/2012 6:28:00 AM

Thanks for all the info. Andy

KCDEIFE

3/24/2012 10:33:00 AM

What about the picture of the bead set up? Post it here or email it to me please. kdeife@live.com

Mike Carey

3/25/2012 3:53:00 PM

I found a web site called steelheadbeads.com that explains it pretty well: "When fishing with beads our recommendation is to use a long leader. The reason is that if your bead is bouncing down the river with your weight, the bead needs enough leader for it to have the buoyancy it needs to flow with the water to make it a natural occurrence going down the river. We have test this theory and it works every time.When fishing from a boat the recommendation is 4 to 6 foot leader. On a boat you are flowing with the river so you don't need the extra length. Check out the set up for fishing with Beads. Make sure you peg your bead 1 to 2" from your hook. Leader must be 8 to 10 feet long fishing from the shore, 4 to 6 feet long from a boat."

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