If there is one Fly that is a 'go to' fly in any Saltwater anglers box it has to be the Clouser Minnow. It was one of the first flies I ever tied and fished with and one of the first I caught fish on. I will often start my fishing sessions on some variation of the Clouser, be it colour, size or material type. There are many ways to tie it and different materials perform different tasks so it is worth thinking about what you want the fly to do in any given situation and choose accordingly. A fly constructed from Bucktail for instance, will sink faster and more easily than the same pattern built from synthetic materials such as Slinky fibre or H2O. It may not seem important at first glance but sometimes it is necessary to get the fly down to deeper fish quickly, or sometimes you want it to sink slowly and fish at a shallower depth, all depending on where the fish are sitting in the water column.
Where I live, smaller flies work well early season and so I have tied up a batch of Clousers in various colours in readiness for the new season. As the season progresses I will move up to larger flies as the fish begin to feed on larger baitfish, but I will always carry the small ones as well for situations when the predators are feeding on large numbers of fry. Often they will become very pre occupied on theses tiny baitfish and it is impossible to get a hook up unless you can 'match the hatch'.
I have a limited number of surplus Clouser's for sale at the moment which you will find in the Saltwater Flies for sale section.
The humble Clouser has many guises depending on what you tie it with and how you tie it. Some might say a Clouser is a Clouser, but believe me it isn't. I have experimented with many different materials for this pattern and they have all caught fish. My favourite and the best fish catcher by far is SF Flashblend, using this material produces quite a bulky fly and needs to be tied quite short. Bucktail on the other hand I feel produces a much better result tied fairly long and Sandeel like. Flashblend is much slower sinking when compared to Bucktail.
As the strong Easterly winds are persisting at the moment I had an hour at the vice today and tied up a couple of Clouser variations using UTC tinsel wrapped around the hookshank to produce a shiny belly which I think adds another dimension to them. I also tied a simple generic baitfish from Bucktail. Just a bit of practice to keep my hand in while we wait for these winds to settle a bit!
