Good afternoon,
Interested in tying up a few smaller clousers for bluegill. Planning on using the tmc 200R hook in size 12 and 14. I am having difficulty deciding on what winging material. have thought about superhair and a few others. Anybody got any suggestions?
thanks
steve
Steve;
Super Hair works for regular size Clousers so it should be great on smaller ones. You might also want to search the archives for “Crappie Candy”.
I’ve recently seen squirrel and calf tail used.
Craft Fur comes in a LOT of colors, and has excellent movement in the water, and is easy to tie down. Its what I use on most of my Clousers smaller than size 8…but it also works well on larger sizes.
Dave’s right… try kip tail i.e. calf tail
Bob Clouser’s own “foxy” series uses foxtail
I’ve been having real good luck with squirrel and calftail on clousers down to size 14. I’ve also been playing with fox, coyote, and, on very small clousers, rabbit. I’ve seen some cool looking ones done with craft fur but haven’t done any myself. I’ve found Super Hair to be a little difficult to tie in securely on smaller clousers without creating way too much bulk at the eye of the hook.
i would stay away from craft fur, it tends to mat up. something like enrico fibers would probably work well, or crinkeld nylon. the trick with the nylon is how you trim it. dont cut it straight, at the end of the fly. cut it at an angle, giveing a taper to the fly.
good luck
Looks like this question has many options and it mostly goes by personal preferece.
I have just started tying them down to smaller sizes in recent months so you’ll have to take my answer with a grain of salt. 
So far i have tried them with the soft under-fur from buck tail, kip/calf tail and craftfur. 1st choice would be craftfur - easiest to deal with for me at this size and the action is excellent. 2nd choice would be kip - it seems to hold a panfish profile pretty well but also seem to be much more slippery and harder (for me) to lock down the upper/wing section.
I use thinning sheers when I cut synthetic hair. It gives the fibers a raggy, uneven “natural” appearance. The best results I’ve got are from inexpensive coarse thinning sheers, not the fine fly tying versions. I got mine at Wal-Mart.
Thanks for the responses. Seems I need to run to the fly shop and pick up some different material and see which one works best for my tying skills.
thanks
steve
Try using some krystal flash on very small sizes. Work well on panfish.
Rick
John makes a good point.
Craft fur WILL tangle after a few fish. Or sometimes it gets wrapped around the eyes of the fly. But I can just run my fingers over it to straighten it back out fairly well. The craft fur clousers hold up very well, I’ve caught in excess of 50 fish on a several individual ones I’m still using. Plus, its so quick and easy to make more, and the colors and combinations are considerable. The movement is awesome, and they just catch fish.
Try RickZ’s suggestion on a few…another fellow I’ve run into a couple times in Sportsman’s Warehouse told me he has been having very good luck with a “Panfish Charlie” using krystal flash…which would be very similar to a Clouser.
Atticafish has a good point with the kip tail being a bit slippery. I use a lot more cement on the kip than I do other materials to make sure it stays put fish after fish. Should have said that before.
Steve,
I have used squirrel tail and have been very pleased with the outcome. I have used calf tail with similar results but of the two, squirrel is my preference. The one material I haven’t see mentioned is marabou it has a great action maybe even better than the squirrel. I have even stripped the barbs off of duck breast feathers; they look awesome because of the natural colors.
Crystal flash when it is cut to length to a 14 size hook looses its natural wave or maybe I should say action so what I do to add a flash is use “Ice dub” and dub a thin body from the eyes back to the bend of the hook then tie in the hair / marabou.
I really need to start posting pictures. This is one of my favorites to tie.
Oh yes, I definitely want to see what that looks like.
Well… everyone has to get in on this subject… I have found the absolute best for Texas bluegill to be white rabbit lower wing, with olive rabbit upper wing with one strand of white krystal flash tied in each wing… These are tied extremely sparse so they will get all the water action they can… I must admit I have not tried maribou because these work so well!
my vote is for craft fur tied in by the tips with a few strands of k flash and mabe a small wire head around the eyes
Hi Steve,
Like Mayhanvey uses, and Bluegill 222 mentioned, I use rabbit fur for the little bitty Clousers. The rabbit has great movement, very similar to marabou, but lasts much better than marabou. The only draw back, is that most rabbit fur I find is fairly short, so you are limited to tying realatively small size Clouser. For up to size 10, however, the rabit seems fine.
I have dyed rabbit, and also use Zonker strips. Zonker strips are widely available, and are available in lots of colors at fairly reasonable prices.
Regards,
Gandolf
Craft fur rocks.
Everyone has some great ideas. Gandolf, I would sure like to see a pic your rabbit fur clouser. That sounds like a winner.
steve