Both egg flies & beads have their moments. I got to see just how deadly beads were on a Great Lakes trip a couple seasons ago. And over the years, I've probably caught an easy 20% of my resident stream trout on various egg patterns. When they work, they work well indeed. Real eggs have lots of calories in them and cannot swim away- it's an easy, fattening meal for the trout. They don't have to chase them down like a minnow.