Trout success can be found at craft store and cosmetic counter

Valley Life editor

The last places you'd expect to find an avid trout angler is in the cosmetics section at Wal-Mart or at the craft store, but thanks to an increasing trend, they are vital to angling success.

Trout fishing with beads isn't a new phenomenon, although each year, more and more anglers are turning to the practice.

"I've been fishing with beads for years. Trout are pretty finicky, and when you find something that works, you stick with it," said John Andersen, a local fly fisherman. "Now, everyone you see is fishing with beads. It used to be that Glo bugs were the hot thing, but beads have all but replaced them."

Beads are often "pegged" an inch or two (check the regulation books for rules governing individual streams -- most regulations have a two-inch restriction) above a bare hook, by shoving a tooth pick into the bead hole that the leader runs through. When a trout bumps the bead, it often pulls the hook right through its mouth.

The thinking behind using a bead is that trout are gorging on salmon eggs from spawning salmon, and that the beads imitate an egg. Matching the exact size and color of the eggs is of utmost importance.

"I've got a bead box that has every shape and size imaginable," Andersen said. "If you don't have the right size and color, you aren't going to catch fish."

For some anglers, getting the exact color means a trip to the cosmetics counter. Finger-nail polish is a favorite way to get the exact color on beads, and by hand-painting them, the beads tend to take on a more natural look.

"I'm not going to tell you which finger-nail polish I use or what color beads I use originally, but when you have the right combination, you have the right combination," said Andersen's fishing buddy, Stacey Rollings of Anchorage. Rollings and Andersen were fishing on Willow Creek last week, and enjoying modest success catching rainbows on beads.

Once you have the "hatch" matched, the game only begins for bead fisherman, however. You have to get an exact dead drift to fully imitate a salmon egg rolling down the bottom of a riverbed.

"That's the hardest part of fly fishing," Rollings said. "These fish are smart. If you don't have the right drift, they can tell and you miss strikes."

Beads were once the super secrets of a select few. Now, almost every fly angler has a bead box filled to capacity. Almost.

The use of beads is a sometimes controversial one, depending on who you ask, and not everybody is rushing out to buy beads and nail polish.

"A bead isn't a fly, so to call it fly fishing isn't a true statement," said Greg Veron, who said he prefers to use Glo bugs to imitate eggs. "I know beads work, but I haven't been able to bring myself to use them. I think it kind of goes outside of the spirit of fly fishing."

Veron also mentioned that by pegging beads ahead of bare hooks, trout tend to get foul-hooked more often.

"I've seen hooks in the gills, hooks in the eyes, and when you release those fish, they die," Veron said, echoing a sentiment many opponents of bead fishing share. "Even pegged within two inches, fish get foul-hooked a lot more than when you use a Glo bug."

Bead users, however, see it differently.

"With Glo bugs, the take is so deep that you end up with the hook so far down a trout's throat that it is going to die when you release it anyway," Rollings said. "With beads, you hook trout in the mouth. Sure, if your bead is half a foot up your leader, you're going to stick them in the gills. But the regs say two inches.

"At two inches, you're going to get them in the lip, and that's it. It's about the best way to fish catch-and-release in my mind," Rollings said.