Your Favorite Clouser Material?

[JP Z]

Okay all,

After going to the Great Waters Expo last weekend I bought quite abit of different materials. And some of the neatest is a Arctic Fox synthetic. It reallly has some great feel and body to it for wing material on Clousers. I played with adding a layer of white, then some Krystal Flash, then another color of the Fox Syn. I believe I did a white bottom, copper crystal, and then Grey top.

Anybody willing to tell some of there favorite materials for Clousers?

[tie flyer]

Bucktail. It's cheap (just look in the ditch) and I can dye it myself. The wife just loves that roadkill stew smell when I microwave animal parts.

[Craig_S]

I use primarily bucktail. And I steer away from the heavy hair near the base of the tail. It's too hollow and floats too much. It'll even turn the hook over. I also use some marabou, squirrel tail, craft fur, and occaisonally hackle. And of course, a little, and just a very little flash.

Craig

[Ice-9]

For bigger saltwater clousers I use almost exclusively synthetics--flashfibre, EP, etc. You guys should try some of those fine craft-fur like synths for smaller clousers, too. It gives a different look and action, but worth exploring.

Another mainstay is the half-and-half, which I think refers to deceiver/clouser. It's just a clouser with a hackle, usually grizzly, to fill out the center of the fly. There's a cool Cape Cod variation of the clouser which uses larva lace along the hook shank--use v-rib for smaller flies--gives that transparent look and very effective, something different. I don't know how to post pictures, but if somebody shows me I'll show you what I mean.

ice

[JP Z]

I generally was using bucktail but had heard from others that the Fox Synthetic is a good material so I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm very happy with it so far and can't wait to try it this spring.

[turiprap]

I guess I'm a traditionalist - at least to this point - because I've used only bucktail. My standard Clouser is tied on a size 6 Mustad 3407 hook. This is a nickel plated saltwater hook which may be odd because I fish only freshwater. I think this is because the first Clouser I ever saw was tied that way. I've come to like the tiny bit of extra flash (I use only two strands of krystal flash per side) and I think the "weight forward" aspect of the short, stout hook makes the fly jig a little more. Who knows?

Craig S makes a good point about the varying quality of hair on a bucktail. The stuff near the base is too stiff, too coarse and too straight to be of much use. Good thing bucktail is cheap.

[goody]

Normally, it's bucktail, krystal flash, and a couple strands of flash-a-boo, but I've tied variations using some synthetics, and for a extremely slow or a bottom presentation I've used a bunny strip.

[Magneto]

Quote:

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I guess I'm a traditionalist - at least to this point - because I've used only bucktail. My standard Clouser is tied on a size 6 Mustad 3407 hook.

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turiprap, do find that those hooks are somewhat dull? The reason I ask is that I too have used them and like them for their lightness,and also the gape, but I find that I get a lot of fish getting off that hook. I have also used the TMC 8099 and find that to be much sharper with much fewer misses.

When I do use the 3407 I have begun to sharpen them at the vice.

Mike

[turiprap]

I guess I'd say that they are not as sharp as TMC and Daiichi hooks, but they're probably sharper than other Mustad models. I wonder if the short shank doesn't allow for some "nipping" by the fish back at the tail, which would result in light hooking or no hooking at all. I've thought about tying some Clousers on a 3XL streamer hook to see if that would increase the hookup percentage, but somehow lack the basic motivation. Maybe a middle course would be to sharpen my hooks!

[deeky]

For me it's been bucktail and flashabou, but want to try the krystal when I can pick some up.

Putting the clousers together, where do you put the eyes on the shank? For crappies? For bass? Do you go for the up and down jigging or for the glide?

Deeky

[Ice9]

General rule for clousers is the eyes go fairly far back on the shank. Most beginning tiers put the eyes too far forward. I learned from Bob himself and all I can remember is that one. He had a ratio--maybe it was the length of the lead eyes back from the hook eye, I don't remmember, but he always yelled at us for putting them too far forward. Also he urged us to use saltwater hooks, and not long-shank hooks, either. I think the reason is that if the eyes are too far forward the fly falls head-down, or doesn't fall evenly when the drag of the leader is factored in; also that it's important that clousers stay rotated downward (hook point up) so the color scheme is logical, and keeping the eyes amidships seems to help that.

ice