chartreuse/white clouser minnow

[fishaholic69 0]

my 1st try at um and they didn't seem to hard to make. heres the pic!

[JSzymczyk 0]

yes they're extremely easy to tie once you get the hang of it. Your fly looks good and it will catch fish. Just a couple observations I made that might be of help, and of course they're totally optional-

 

1) you might want to align the tips of your bucktail a little more using a hair stacker or just your fingers.

 

2) you might want to use bucktail from the "tip" half of the tail because that hair tends to be more solid, and does not flare as easily as hair from near the body of the deer. It will give a slimmer profile to the fly.

 

the best thing is, there is no completely Right or Wrong way of doing it. You might find sometimes a minnow with a shorter, larger profile will produce better than a 'traditional' long skinny sparsely dressed minnow.

attached is a pic of a version of a white/chart/black clouser I've had good success with.

 

[fishaholic69 0]

thanks for the tips. Thats why I post my flies on here. would love to hear what I am doing wrong so I can improve it. I used hair from the bottom of the tail. that explains the flare. also I don't have a stacker yet and noticed that they weren't even now. I need one of those. next time I will try to do it with my fingers. I will tie up another in a few minutes.

[fishaholic69 0]

made a couple more. the one on the right was great until I noticed i tied it upside down!!! so I re did it alil and added extra and switched it so its a lil thicker than supose to be.. the other I did and added a lil black like yours . tried to make that one sparce as I read that it is good to be sparcer. hopefully they will work! will let ya kno I am going to try um tommorow. heres the pix

[flytire 0]

watch bob clouser tie the clouser minnow. this should get you tying them correctly

 

http://www.flyfisherman.com/ftb/bobclouser/

 

 

[utyer 0]

You might also want to pickup a straight eye hook like the Mustad 3407, or the Mustad Signature S71 S SS.

[JSzymczyk 0]

IMO- a turned-down-eye hook when making this type of fly keeps it more on an even keel, like a jig. When tied on a straight eye hook, the fly tends to "fall over" quite a bit as it is fished. THIS CAN BE A GOOD THING, because the fly flopping over on its side from time to time can give it more of a crippled minnow action. Easy meal. I tie them mostly on Mustad 3366 hooks, and quite often I use round nose pliers to give the hook eye a slight turned-down bend. Not as severe as a typical TDE hook, but just enough to put the tie-in point slightly higher than the heavy eyes. The eyes need to be heavy enough to offset the mass of the hook bend and point, combined with the buoyancy of the hair. That's an over complicated mumbo-jumbo way of saying:

 

"there is nothing wrong with using a TDE hook."

 

I once read an interview with Clouser, and when asked what hook he prefers for the deep minnow, he said something like "whatever I have laying around on the bench, I think these are Tiemcos." In other words, it's not critical. This is an awesome style of fly, but I think perhaps many fly fishermen have given it some sort of mystical status. When you get right down to it, it's a flyrod version of a bucktail jig, which were being used in Pennsylvania for smallmouths and walleyes and everything else since at least the early fifties, probably earlier. When I first showed my Dad a clouser deep minnow, he said "oh, it's a bucktail jig." He had been killing walleyes and bass with bucktails in the Allegheny as long ago as the mid fifties, using quarter to half ounce versions on casting and spinning tackle.

 

No question it's one of the styles no one should leave home without, like woolly buggers.

 

[fishaholic69 0]

thats who I watched when I tied um up. guess I am not as good as clouser haha. anyways I went today and caught a creek chub with it. so it worked . but nothing was biting really today anyway. also caught 3 rock bass on a black flashbugger.

[Sagittarius62 0]

One thing you will notice with Bob Clouser's deep minnows is the bucktail is very sparse. I always try to use about half as much as I think I should. Regarding the eveness of the tips, you will notice that is something the inventer is not too concerned with. I don't stack or hand stack mine, but I do try to get as many of the shorts out as possible.

[fishaholic69 0]

ya I feel you on the sparce after i watched the vid again. I just made another one really sparce and used red for the gills. I used the chartruese and white and a lil black that I could get off the bucktail also a white head.. not bad I guess. i need to get some more colors tho. heres the pic

[Sagittarius62 0]

My absolute most productive clouser for smallies in a couple local rivers is a White/Chart/Black with chart krystal flash. I use red thread when tying in the belly portion. This gives a section of red behind the eyes.

[sukhoidave 0]

As has been mentioned before you can tie these up any way you want. I am noticing that your flies have all the bucktail coming out from behind the eyes, I think. Clouser ties his with the bucktail on the shank side of the fly tied in before the eyes then up and over the eyes and open spiral wrapped behind the eyes. He then flips the hook upside down in the vise and then the hook point side bucktail is just tied in before the lead eyes.

 

This ends up sort of giving the fly a tail and a wing.

 

Here is one of my better efforts:

 

[fishaholic69 0]

I tied both sides in infront of the eyes but wrapped back past the eyes on both sides after securing in the front. I see how yours is. looks alot better that way. will have to try it out. do you got a link or something to show me how he ties um? I don't think I spriral wrapped around the eyes and all that?

[Skip48 0]

Another option is putting some epoxy on and I like the depth it gives the eyes, but not so sure it will catch any more fish, LOL!

 

Here is one with epoxy head...

[fishaholic69 0]

looks great!