If you want to catch a lot of fish in Alaska, bead fishing is a great way to achieve that goal. Fishing beads was developed in the streams of Bristol Bay as a cheap yet effective way to imitate salmon eggs. Over the years, small improvements have been made to the bead fishing game to increase your hook up and landing percentages. One change to my bead fishing set up that has resulted in more fish in my net is when I started Snelling my bead hooks. I use the knot from the diagram above, the uni knot snell. I will be the first to admit any normal knot to the eye of the hook can work when bead fishing but I have found that when I snell the hook, I land a higher percentage of the hooked fish. This is because when using a snell knot, the line is wrapped around the shank of the hook causing it to ride in a straight line behind the bead. When using a traditional knot like the improved clinch to the eye of the hook, some of the time the hook can swing out to the side of the bead resulting in less meat of the fish’s mouth being hooked. You will get the same number of eats on the bead with either knot, I have just found that I land a higher percentage of those fish when my hook is snelled.
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How heavy is the mono you use to snell them?
Depends on the river and water clarity but anywhere from 8-15 pound. I hope that helps!
I’ve forgotten the leader wrap I’ll call it that can keep the bead in place above the hook eye on the leader rather than breaking off a tooth pick.
Use a vice to create t
he snell knot using a down eyed hook, and you can add some skein into the knot before you finish the last process, and pull it up tight.