just for the heck of it I was checking on line videos of the closer minnow and I just noticed everybody uses buck tail for the body…I have always tied mine with calf tail. Not sure if it makes a difference. I usually don’t worry much about the materials but I find calf tail to be easier to tie with.
Thanks
What size do you tie yours? Clousers minnows can go up to 3/0 hooks for the largest saltwater version. Even on a #2 hook the buck tail should be over 2 inches to have enough to work with.
Buck tail has much straighter hair fibers too.
I’m using Mustad CK 52s hooks size 8 and 6.
For smaller flies, like the ones you’re tying, I like stuff like coyote and red fox tail especially if I’m trying to imitate crayfish. I probably have some calf tail that’s straight enough to use on those sized hooks, too.
Regards,
Scott
I love clousers, love to fish them, love to tie them. My favorite uses red fox tail rather than bucktail. It’s called the Foxee Redd and works well on size 8 and 10 hooks. Fantastic fly. A couple of weeks ago I caught about 15 smallies on one and it held up and is ready to fight another day.
Diane
I think and think again trying to remember how on earth I came up with the idea of using calf tail for these…maybe because it was easier to handle or because I related it with deer hair as it kind of flairs the same and I was not comfortable using deer hair back then.
I’m not a deer hair expert but I have tied my share of bass bugs, I’ll start tying my Clousers with buck tail.
Thanks again you guys for the useful info.
Bob Clouser also ties smaller Clousers with squirrel tail-red black grey color. BILL:tieone:
Bob Clouser addresses using a number of different natural and synthetic materials for the Clouser Deep Minnow. The original were tied with bucktail, but early on Bob began to use other materials as appropriate. This is well documented in the book he wrote about his fly patterns, which by the way has the best written instructions I have seen on tying the Clouser minnow and variants (no surprise there).
In addition to bucktail, calf tail, fox, and squirrel , other materials that work great as appropriate are goat hair, yak hair, polar bear, super hair, unique hair, slinky fibre, kinky fibre, craft fur, wig hair, etc.
If you tie flies longer than 3.5 to 4 inches the use of goat or yak hair or synthetics is difficult to avoid since bucktails with long enough and usable hair to tie the large patterns is quite rare.
In Bob Clouser’s book Clouser’s Flies, he states “For many of my smaller minnow and darter patterns, calf tail is a good choice.”
I think the far bigger mistake with Clousers is using too much hair, regardless the exact species. I use polar bear for the white half almost always and it seems to create an edge in effectivness.
With #8, 10 & 12 hooks mostly tyed with bucktail for smallie flys. Sometimes went to calf tail, or any other semi-straight material for #12 & 14’s clousers. For saltwater clousers, #4 - #3/0 long enough bucktails are not always easy to find; so yak hair, polar fiber, FisHair, Supreme Hair, Ultra Hair, etc. work just as well if not better; especially if there’s too many teeth in the fishes mouth which bucktail just doesn’t stand up to repeatedly.
I tie a lot of Clousers and have always used bucktail. This has been a really helpful thread. Thanks to all.
Coughlin
I tie a lot of clousers for salt water and the one I like for this is the clouser half and half, which uses saddle hackle. It is a cross between the clouser and deceiver
For smaller Clouser’s (with a capital C please) I like marabou or craft fur
Thanks a lot guys.
BINGO!!
I tend to struggle a bit with this unless I make an effort! I’m much better now but it took some attention.
Marty, if you do go with the deer hair, pick the hair that’s not thick at the base. It’s more hollow and will tend to flair on you…bigtime!
Look for the thinner, finer hair about midway down the tail, on the sides.
Been that route!
Jeremy.
I think the issue will be when I tie big Clousers for saltwater applications. This post has cleared a lot of questions and misconceptions I had on them. I’m glad I asked you guys.
Again, thanks a lot.