How hard/easy is the clouser minnow to tie?

[dudley]

All due respect to Mr. Clouser, but I always tie mine with both the tail and the wing colors tied on top, in front of the eye.
I did it the official way for years, but I found that the tail section would get destroyed dragging on the bottom.
The fish don't seem to mind the difference

[jiggin]

You have no crystal flash for the lateral line

[William Fitzgerald]

Having watched Bob tie his Clouser I noticed he would use white thread not mono, tie the barbell eye 1/3 back from the hook eye and the hair length twice the length of the hook. He tied some smaller nice versions with squirrel tail. Use a straight eye hook. You said you didnt have buck tail so you used deer tail--- they are the same. Dont tie the white so far back, stay closer to the bead chain BILL

[OttoDita]

I tried tying from a pattern I read with some photos. I wasn't able to tie a clouser from that, then another youtube video, same thing. Then I found bobs video, and tied a decent clouser. I prob need to use a bit more hair maybe. I find the biggest problem I had with this tie was the eye of the hook, I had a problem with crouding again, but after 5-6 tries I was able to take care of it. But my "cone" is still not looking great either.

I have some squirrel tail and deer tail left, so I'll tie up some more in the next few days while I wait for monday to come. Maybe it'll improve. I did learn quite a bit from watching Bobs video. That'll help with other ties as well.

Thanks for the tips everyone, and the compliments.
Shane

[DDRRedneck500]

you mentioned you didnt have any bucktail so you just used deer tail. i thought they were the same thing. whats the difference between the two? if its between male and female deer ive used them both from deer family or friends shot, and ive never noticed any difference...

[Sagittarius62]

you mentioned you didnt have any bucktail so you just used deer tail. i thought they were the same thing. whats the difference between the two? if its between male and female deer ive used them both from deer family or friends shot, and ive never noticed any difference

There is none that I have ever seen. You will notice that Bob Clouser calls it "deer tail" more often than not in his books and videos. Hareline buys thousands of tails from meat processors etc, and all they do is sort them by size. Most retailers don't even sell tails broken down by size, though some do. Clouser himself sells two varieties "short" with hair 3 inches or less and "long" with hair 3 inches or longer. I have about a dozen different bucktails, and depending who I got them from, they are roughly 2 different general sizes. One I would call medium, that are about 8 inches long by 4 inches wide, and most of the hair length is less than 3 inches, and ones I call large that are at least 10 inches long by 5 inches wide, and have alot of fibers longer than 3 inches. I use them interchangeably.

[TxEngr]

Two things I notice are the placement of the eyes and the flaring out of the bucktail. Try placing the eyes a bit further back on the hook. This leaves a little more room for the head area. Watch the video of Bob Clouser for the exact dimension. You may be applying too much thread tension on the bottom(top) bucktail and that's making it flare out from the hook. Start with softer wraps up near the eyes and then much tighter wraps as you approach the eye. Bucktail tends to want to flare if you put too much thread tension on it. I've got some clousers that look just like yours from my early days of tying!

Hope this helps and keep on tying!

TxEngr

[jmeyerc]

I have had a lot of success with the Clouser Minnow having made them for Saltwater, I am lucky I have step by step instruction for the pattern -- but reducing the size for trout is a big shock as the hooks went from 6/0 down to size 8 long shank. But I now have it coming right. it takes time but the effort is really worth while..

So keep trying you will be really rewarded when it suddenly comes right for you...

Jeanne

[Bamboozle]

Otto:

One of my undisclosed passions is cooking. When I'm developing a recipe I often times experiment with either portions of the recipe or the techniques before committing to a full meal. It allows me to fine tune things without screwing up a dinner because I discovered I didn't know how NOT to break a Bearnaise Sauce before I got to the point when I needed it for the dish I was preparing.

This convoluted analogy also applies to my fly tying. When I'm trying a new pattern which may involve a new technique or material; I will practice with the material or the new techniques WITHOUT constructing a whole fly. For example when I first started tying quill bodied flies before I decided to begin a fly in the normal fashion; I practiced JUST the quill preparation and wrapping on a bare hook. After I was content and satisfied with my results I built my first Quill Gordon's. Other practice sessions I can recall involved floss tags and bodies, tinsel bodies and tinsel tie-in, bead head tie-ins and tie-offs, quill wings and married wings and a bunch of other stuff I can't recall at the moment.

This pre-tying practice not only helped me enormously; it also all but eliminates the first few lousy looking flies I end up when I first begin a batch. Any step in the tying process you are unsure of can be practiced this way without starting at the "beginning" and ending with a completed fly that you are unhappy with. For example you can practice split tails, floss application, wrapping hackle, foam techniques, new brands of thread, etc; even Clouser heads!

Try it sometime. I'll bet you end up with better looking flies in less time with less rejects.

[fivedials]

Shane,

Take this for what it is worth; espescially from a newcomer to tying. What you have shown us in this post and others is not terrible. It just shows some inexperience. As I mentioned in another post...Go to the FAOL home page, click on the fly tying and take the tying courses from the begining. That was the advice I got from quite a number of FAOLers. I was trying to tie flies before I had mastered the skills or materials. I think you're caught in the same trap I was. I saw a fly and wanted to tie it irregardless of my talent. We need to walk before we can run.

Take a fresh start and take the classes. The more you tie the better you will become.