My flies swim upside down

[Adventure568 0]

I made some clouser like flies with heavy lead barbell eyes. I ment for them to swim hook up but for some reason they swim hook down. I don't know what is causing this- please help

Thanks

[captkenroy 0]

A sure fire way is to tie Clousers on jig hooks like the Eagle claw 314.

[SilverCreek 0]

You can try to describe what you tied but what we need is a photo.

[shoebop 0]

Yep, you gotta show us the fly

[Philly 0]

Without seeing the fly I would guess that you tied in the dumbbell eyes in on the bottom of the shank rather than on top of the hook shank.

[mikechell 0]

Without a picture, I've got a couple of guesses.'

1) The hook eye is turn away from the hook point. Hook eye angle can determine fly orientation, regardless of materials tied on the hook.

2) The leader is tied to the hook so that IT is angled away from the hook point. I can tell if my knot is positioned correctly by how my fly comes through the water. If it gets moved out of place, the fly returns in an odd angle or action.

3) Your material placement or amount. The fly will sink with the most water flow resistant material trailing the weight of everything else. That "rudders" the fly ... sometimes correctly, sometimes upside down.

[Adventure568 0]

I don't have a Computer and am on my iphone. Unfortunately I don't think I can upload pictures from the iPhone. But just think of a typical clouser swimming hook down- this is happening to my flys

[SilverCreek 0]

I don't have a Computer and am on my iphone. Unfortunately I don't think I can upload pictures from the iPhone. But just think of a typical clouser swimming hook down- this is happening to my flys

 

It can't be a "typical" Clouser because a typical Clouser rides hook point up. So the fly is unbalanced and we cannot tell you why or how it is unbalanced because we cannot see the fly.

 

My suggestion is to use the correct hook specified in the pattern, and very important is to use the correct size and weight of lead eyes so it has enough mass to bring the center of mass of the fly above the shank of the hook. Then the fly must ride hook point up with the center of mass below the hook shank.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

There could be to much bucktail on the top of the hook as well, which would be unbalanced as Silver said.

 

Kirk

[flytire 0]

but for some reason they swim hook down.

 

is that really a bad thing? they will probably still catch fish

[SilverCreek 0]

I think he wants then so they don't hook the bottom as much. Kind of like streamers tied on the old Mustad keel hooks.

 

 

[ditz2 0]

yep....need to see the fly.

 

eyes too light

hair not balanced

eyes on wrong side of hook shank.

[JSzymczyk 0]

there are about 17 trillion photos posted on websites from iphones every day... just sayin'

 

Clouser Deep Minnows don't need jig hooks, or fancy bends, or anything special to swim and fish exactly as intended.

 

Do a web search on tying them. There are youtube videos of Bob Clouser himself tying the fly.

 

My first guess is you put the eyes on the wrong side of the shank. They should be opposite of the bend.

 

Second guess is you are using WAY too much bucktail, not tying it in correctly, and not balancing it correctly as ditz said.

 

Third guess is you might not be tying a Clouser Deep Minnow at all.... just because a fly has dumbell eyes does not make it a "clouser"....

[JSzymczyk 0]

all else fails, just tie them "upside down" from what you've been tying, and they'll swim right!!

[ROTW 0]

I have to agree with JSymczyk. Probably the most common mistakes are the eyes are on the wrong side of the hook or way to much bucktail for the size of the eyes.