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ChromeAddict

Clouser Minnows

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I have recently gotten into tying Clousers, and have 2 questions.

 

Does anyone tie smaller Clousers? I have been tying a size 12 and really like how it looks, but haven't heard of anyone tying them smaller than an 8 or 10.

 

Also, are there any other materials I can use for them other than bucktail? I want to try a few different variation but haven't been able to think of anything else to use.

 

Thanks

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My friend turned me on to a clouser pattern on a #8 and 10 with copper dumb bell eyes and blue and silver flashabou wing. Uh, he kicked my butt fly fishing at a local lake for warm water species. Bass blue gill and the such. Let It sink to the bottom, then uses rod to SLOWLY drag the fly on the bottom. Then strips up the slack, and repeats the slow dragging with the rod. Like fishing a plastic worm with standard tackle. Sort of. Made a believer out of me that day. When I got home, first thing I did was make some. LOL

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I think the main "block" to tying smaller "Clousers" is the location of the barbell. Small bead chain can replace barbells, but once you get down to a certain length hook, putting the eyes far enough back to qualify the fly as a Clouser starts blocking the hook point.

Moving the eye forward fixes this, and you start getting something more like a Panfish Charlie, or a Squirrely pattern.

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Tie it with the bar bell on the side opposite of the hook point and you will get clean hookups and a degree of weedlessness too. Position the bar bell eye at mid hook for a side to side action with a loop knot connection and nearer the eye for jigging up and down action. Sparse wings are the ticket to success with the pattern.

 

Rocco

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other than bucktail?

 

Yes. Steve Ferrar's Flash Blend, Supreme Hair, Yak, just to name a few.

 

My personal choice is Craft Fur (all tied to the "bottom" of the hook)

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Hey Chrome...neat little flies aren't they. In a Bob Clouser Video with Lefty, he has a small bonefish Clouser with calftail. My wife and I have been using small calftail Clouser's similar to this for the last few years as a panfish fly. I also modified it by using beadchain instead of dumbell eyes. Bluegills, Crappie and perch...yummy. Cheers, Ed

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In Clouser's book on tying these, he reccommends using calftail (also known as kip tail) on the smaller flies.

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Some of the smaller flies with bead chain that I have seen have too much materials and the bead chain is not heavy enough to make the fly swim correctly. Also as someone pointed out, the length of hook. A common mistake is too short a hook and too long a clouser. If your quarry is a Blue fish they will swallow everything. If your quarry is a crappie or trout, they will get a mouthful of hair and you a strike without a hook up.

 

Calf tail is great. My experience is that the hair needs to be somewhat to relatively stiff to maintain the shape of the clouser. I saw a clouser with very soft and silky almost floss fiber like material. I had to try the fly. Most times it was a ball of tangle coming out of the water after a retrieve. The casting was bruttal on the fly.

 

They make very small lead bar bell clouser heads. Tied size 10 or 12 and sparse, they are great trout flies.

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Here are a few pics of the Clousers I tie - most of mine use Lefty's method with all the materials on one side of the hook (the 'inverted' side...). I'll start with a pair of Clousers meant for Peacocks that I used to do for one shop down here in paradise one with a natural wing -the other with a synthetic wing for comparison.... Many of mine also come equipped with weedguards - but that's a necessity if you're working mangroves or bonefishing on top of thick turtle grass. The simplest, sparse wings for bonefish Clousers work the best. I'd do them in five different color combinations for bones -always in two sizes, #4 and #6 as well...

 

Along with different wings and eyes ranging from light to heavy I also use bead chain for specific effects. You might want to try different hook styles as well... The last pattern is a much bigger fly done up on a 2/0 Mustad 34007 hook (most of my Clousers are based around that same hook style in different sizes). Here, I also do this pattern on a jig style hook occasionally....

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I like those presentation eyes a lot - and buy them 1000 per size every time.... Here's a pic or two of how I set them up for painting in quantity... After each color the stick(s) are baked at 250 for 20 minutes to dry and harden the oil based high gloss paint I'm using....

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Interesting set up Cap't. Can get a lot done a whole lot shorter time than painting one a time. I usually stick eyes on and then give them a coat of UV to lock them in.

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Again ... this is going to sound argumentative, but it's not intended to be. I am actually a little confused.

I've watched several videos, including a couple by Bob Clouser, himself. NONE of the above pictured flies are actually "Clousers".

He is very specific on the placement of the eyes on the shank, the positioning and tying in of materials and finishing off. He does not angle the materials to cover the hook point. He does not finish the fly with a large thread head in front of the eyes. In fact, his flies look very different to those pictured above. Every fly pictured above is more of a "Charlie" than a "Clouser."

 

So, am I incorrect in thinking that a "Clouser" is tied to a specific pattern, and the above flies are not that pattern?

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I have been using the Wapsi mini dumbbell eyes and a size 12 Mustad Nymph/Sproat hook, and place the eyes at the halfway point on the shank. I watched a video with Bob Clouser tying a Clouser Minnow, and he does place the eyes further forward, so I guess the size 12s I have been tying are Clouser variants.

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