That is the question. Actually, the question I get asked most when I post about the BYPT (Beaded Yellow Pheasant Tail) is… “Why?”.
The slightly rude answer would be, “Why not?” but the answer I usually give is, “To mess/screw with the buoyancy - bead wants to sink, snowshoe want to float” (or something along those lines).
But, why? Why stick a bead on a dry fly? And the answer really is, “Why not!”. I got the idea after listening to Pete Tyjas interview Jason Borger on the excellent Fly Culture Podcast. Jason spoke of his father adding split shot to dry flies to “really get them down in the current”. I thought about it (especially for early season) and this is the result.
As you can see from the photos, it looks pretty good and more importantly it seems to work well. The first of these flies were tested out last season with encouraging results, they’ll be tested again this year but some people have already jumped right in and ordered some… why not?
