CLOUSER

SALTWATER OR BASS

CLOUSER MINNOW

The Clouser in my view is the quintessential salt water fly. It can be tied in sizes to suit Bream or Billfish and with the correct dressing and size is equally at home in saltwater, trout and bass fisheries. Many flies whilst not acknowledging their heritage are based on the Clouser recipe. Have a good look at David Dodd’s Bream Fly or John Schofield’s Bass Vampire and you will see that they are based on the Clouser recipe and specifically dressed for Bream & Bass respectfully. Because of the use of dumbbell or real eyes eyes this fly fishes with the point up.

In size #2/0 this fly is suited to
pelagics to around 4 kilograms.

Size #2 dressed in colours
suited to bass fishing.

Size #2 dressed in pink/white has has
stood the test of time as estuary fly.

MATERIALS FOR THE FIRST EXAMPLE ABOVE:

Hook - Stainless steel or chemically sharpened
Thread - Strong silk or cotton of the desired colour
Tail / belly - White buck tail or synthetic
Flash - Pearl Flashabou or substitute
Back - Green or Blue Buck Tail or synthetic

Wrap the thread in touching turns a distance equal to 1/3 the length of a hook shank on a standard 34007 hook. If your using a shorter style hook this distance may be equal to 1/2 of that hook and if your using a longer shank hook this distance may be only 1/4 of the way along the hook shank.
Secure the Dumb Bell eyes on top of the hook shank at the 1/3 point described above using figure 8 wraps. To tighten the connection wrap the thread around the base of the eyes on top of the hook shank. Finish with the thread in front of the eyes.
Wind the thread in touching turns down to above the point of the hook and back along the shank stopping in front of the eyes.

Positioning of the eyes at the 1/3 point described above is important because you need to leave enough room in front of the eyes to tie in the dressings and to form a nice shaped head.

Select a small bunch of tail / belly material and tie it in in-front of the eyes and then take it over the eyes and bind it to the hook shank about 2/3 of the way along the hook shank with the tips extending a distance of between the length and 1 1/2 times the length of a standard hook shank beyond the hook.
Return the thread back to in front of the eyes.
Now invert the hook in the vice so that the hook is pointing up. This is the way the fly is intended to swim.

Take care to trim the tag end of the tail / belly material (and the flash and back materials that you tie in at later steps) at an angle so that when you build up a the head later you are not faced with trying to camouflage ridges where materials were trimmed off too square.

Also take care when selecting bunches of materials to tie in that you don't select too much. From my experience a lightly dressed clouser is always better than an overdressed clouser.

Select a small bunch of flash material and tie it in in-front of the eyes and bind it to the hook shank all the ways to the eyes.
Trim the flash so that it extends just beyond the tips of the tail / belly material.

You may choose to leave this step out as the inclusion of flash material may not be necessary depending on intended use of the fly and the other materials used.

Select a small bunch of back material and tie it in front of the eyes and bind it to the hook shank all the way to the eyes.

You may choose to do this in two steps with two colours of back material. For example if you tie in a small amount of pink first followed by a small amount of olive this will better represent a small rainbow trout than just the one colour.

Position the back material so that it is equal in length with the tail of the fly.
Continue wrapping the thread in front of the eyes to build up a neat head, whip finish and varnish.