While tying nymphs for an upcoming trip I ran out of beadheads. Why I procrastinate and wait until midnight the night before I go fishing to tie all the flies I will need is beyond me. All I know is that in this particular circumstance I was in a bit of a pickle. Faced with the terrifying thought of having no flies for the trip I began frantically searching through old boxes hoping to find something, anything that might work. I found out that I have a habit of keeping lots of junky, useless flies! Unwinding threadwraps, missing legs, tattered ribbing, dull, rusted and broken hooks. None of them could be put to use, unless.... Of course! They all had perfectly good beadheads. I took a pair of pliers and started ripping flies apart. Before long I had several dozen beads in all different sizes, and from flies I was never going to use! Now I never throw away old, worn out or otherwise useless beadhead flies. I even find myself picking rusty flies out of bushes on the river. Why not? Beads are expensive and seeing as how I go through flies nearly as fast as I tie them it is nice to get some re-use out of them. If you like to tie a lot of flies like I do then recycling your old beadheads is a great way conserve your resources. Happy tying!