Kokanee Beads for Kokanee Bead Lures

Kokanee fishermen often like to use beads for their lures for a couple reasons. Bead lures rattle, creating some great sound and vibration in the water. Beads also catch the light well, and they’ve been proven to catch kokanee. The wedding ring lure made kokanee bead lures popular, and people have been copying and trying to improve upon it since that time. It’s simple, and it works.

When I started kokanee fishing, I was a broke college student. I was fishing in an inherited boat that had literally been fished in by four generations in our family. There wasn’t a lot of money to spend on gear, so I had to get creative and make my own. I studied different lure styles to figure out what worked the best. Just because I couldn’t buy all the best pre-made lures didn’t mean I wanted to just fish with trash. I wanted to make lures that were as good or better than any I could buy. In my research I also reached out to other lure makers to learn all I could. This article should help you know what you need to know to pick out beads for making your own lures. There are a lot of options, and different beads have their place in various applications.

Making your own kokanee lures isn’t terribly difficult. It takes a little know how, and it helps to have a style you like to copy from. At that point, all you need are the beads. I want to lay out to you how I put together some simple bead lures, along with some tips in picking the right beads for the job.

Kokanee Beads

There’s not a single bead kit that has everything that I like, but the best kit I’ve found is one on Amazon from a company called Alwonder. It’s missing the wedding ring shiny bead in the middle, but it’s got every other component of the wedding ring lure all in one. I’d upgrade from their hook if you’re serious, and you can see our recommendations for the best kokanee hooks if you’re working to put together the best possible lures.

Alwonder Kokanee Bead Kit

Bead Components from Kokanee Lure Companies

Mac’s Lures also recently started selling the beads they use as well, but these aren’t in kits. You can only buy the singular pieces. That said, this is THE beads used on the wedding ring lure.

Bead Size for Kokanee Lures

I like smaller sized beads for my lures, but you’ll notice that a lot of the kokanee lures have multiple sized beads on their lures. Some of these are actually just beads that I’d call snow man beads. Some also call them tapered beads, but I think snow man beads helps a person visualize it better.

Either way, I measured some of my wedding ring lure beads to get the sizes of those tapered beads. Sizes ranged from 2.75mm to 6.25mm. For kokanee lures, you can use beads from 2.5mm to 8mm.

Kokanee Glow Beads

These beads from QualyQualy come in a set with various sizes and various materials. There are glass beads, plastic beads, and some glow beads. Glow beads are nice for kokanee, especially those that are down deep. Some also like to use them night fishing for kokanee. They “charge” them up with a UV light, and then send them down for a presentation the fish can actually see.

QualyQualy Glass and Glow Bead Set

About Kokanee Salmon

Kokanee salmon are landlocked sockeye salmon, which means they don’t return to the ocean and live their entire lives in lakes or reservoirs before spawning in rivers, streams, or gravel close to lakeshores. These salmon are really strong fighters, making them a prime target for anglers, and the popularity of this fish is growing. Kokanee are a schooling fish that feed on zooplankton in the water. They tend to find where these plankton are at and then they school and feed all in that one area. Kokanee fishing gear is not intended to imitate a kokanee’s food source, but rather to catch the attention of a kokanee, and provoke an aggressive strike, either by seeming like competition for the food source, or by simply annoying the kokanee. This is done by a variety of shapes, colors, patterns, and actions in the water.