Northwest Fishing Reports

Many of you may already do this, but instead of paying $0.15/corky, or whatever you're paying, save yourself some of that dough and just go to your local craft store to get beads. I went to JoAnn Fabrics the other day and picked up enough beads to probably last me years for $20.

Also gonna try something new. I got some iridescent sequins. Gonna add them above and below my bead and then secure in place with a toothpick so the whole thing stays put by the hook. Gonna see if the extra flash entices them more. Will be an interesting experiment.

Hobby Lobby is another good bead source. I also buy closed cell foam sheets there that I cut up for fly bodies.

Beads are great but they are not cookies. Sometimes you need the flotation that a corky delivers. For instance shrimp sink and eggs are neutrally buoyant. Fish can only look up so any time im throwing bait I use a corky or two. Those fish pills from mad river are cool too.

Those would be great for home made wedding rings. I might try throwing a wedding while river fishing one of these days, not talked about much but not sure why it wouldn't work.

Try side drifting a bead and eggs, and let me know how that works out.

spoonman wrote:Beads are great but they are not cookies. Sometimes you need the flotation that a corky delivers. For instance shrimp sink and eggs are neutrally buoyant. Fish can only look up so any time im throwing bait I use a corky or two. Those fish pills from mad river are cool too.

I see what you're saying and agree that beads are not AS buoyant as a corky, but they still lift the hook off the bottom. They provide just enough lift to keep it in the bottom foot or so of water. Last weekend I was on the Skok and that water is very clear so I let my gear drift right in front of me so I could see how it looked under the water and the bead (6mm) gave it enough lift to make it flutter about 6-10 inches off the bottom. It's worked great for me so far. I've hooked into more fish using beads than I have with corkies. Just my personal experience.

But a corky would make sense if you were trying to add more buoyancy to eggs or shrimp. I'm talking about a bead and hook setup.

I've been using a 6mm bead with a 1/0 or maybe 2/0 hook and have had good results.

im in no way calling you a snagger, but thats originally how i learned of the bead rig, some guys next to me on the puke used them all the time, braid, yanking and fish on every other cast, but i do agree that sometimes the fish are in the middle of the water and ill use corkies and on a sunny day i find them right on the bottom, so ill use a 10mm bead and nail'em

I had a guy last summer tell me I wwas flossing because I had a bead on a 6 foot leader. Even after showing him fish clearly hooked in the mouth.

Guess I should clarify, inside the mouth as in the fish bit it. Welcome back duncan long time no hear from

honestly, flossing cant be helped, thats all the puke really is for it seems like most of the time, but as long as its not some blatant yanking and treble hookin haha

I believe there is a difference between flossing and snagging. But to me, nothing beats waitin for a bobber to go down

If you read the regs flossing is snagging because the fish didn’t take the hook.....

I didn't start this thread with the intention of having a debate on flossing. There is a distinction between snagging and drift fishing with beads or Corkys. You can easily spot the snaggers. Setting the hook every two seconds, with 4-5 sets per cast. If I set twice during the a drift, I just bring it in because I'm probably out of the strike zone anyways at that point. The snaggers ruin it for the rest of the drift fishers, but honestly I could care less what other people think of me. I catch fish within the confines of the law and have fun doing it.

The purpose of this thread is to try and save my brothers some hard earned money.

Didn’t mean to ruffle feathers, it just seems there is confusion on that point. I sure didn’t mean to hi jack your thread either, sorry. I have caught fish drift fishing and they are HOOKED in the MOUTH, the fish willingly took the hook! I have snagged a few drift fishing which I released but I drift fish and mouth hook fish....Great idea on the beads, I have not fished with beads before but I will give it try! Tight lines!

Fell in love with beads this summer. My cousin, who is a guide on the oly pen makes his own out of hot glue and dyes. Then he pegs them six inches up from a #4 hook with a toothpick. Totally slays summer steel.

strider43 wrote:If you read the regs flossing is snagging because the fish didn’t take the hook.....

I've got the regs in front of me and don't see what you are referring to.
People cheat all the time. Heck, I was out at 3-rivers marine the other day and they now have an entire line of sinkers that look like corkies. Now why would they do that...??? Read the anti-snagging rule and you will get it. They want their weight closer to the hook than 12" but don't want anyone to notice. I've even seen people get creative and put heavy spinner blades *below* a bare hook saying that it was a "lure", not a "weight". Tomato, tomaahto, if you ask me.
And it's easy to floss with a bobber too...

spoonman wrote:Beads are great but they are not cookies.

+1 million

Don't forget about dollar stores! I've found a lot of great lure making stuff there.
Another tip: you can make dozens of soft corky-like floats from a cheap pair of flip flops. Just sharpen the end of a small piece of copper pipe and your'e set.

HillbillyGeek wrote:

strider43 wrote:If you read the regs flossing is snagging because the fish didn’t take the hook.....

I've got the regs in front of me and don't see what you are referring to.
People cheat all the time. Heck, I was out at 3-rivers marine the other day and they now have an entire line of sinkers that look like corkies. Now why would they do that...??? Read the anti-snagging rule and you will get it. They want their weight closer to the hook than 12" but don't want anyone to notice. I've even seen people get creative and put heavy spinner blades *below* a bare hook saying that it was a "lure", not a "weight". Tomato, tomaahto, if you ask me.
And it's easy to floss with a bobber too...

Thats not what those are for. They are bait weights for running eggs under a float. I make my own out of plain sliding sinkers and just paint them myself.

strider43 wrote:Didn’t mean to ruffle feathers, it just seems there is confusion on that point. I sure didn’t mean to hi jack your thread either, sorry. I have caught fish drift fishing and they are HOOKED in the MOUTH, the fish willingly took the hook! I have snagged a few drift fishing which I released but I drift fish and mouth hook fish....Great idea on the beads, I have not fished with beads before but I will give it try! Tight lines!

No offense taken brother. Just didn't want the thread to get derailed on that topic. Just want to give people ideas on how to save money. Some others have shared some great ideas as well. May have to start hitting up my local dollar store and see what they have.