Clouser Deep Minnow

The 'Clouser deep minnow',or Clouser, for short was developed by Bob Clouser. Thispattern is an excellent choice for deeper presentations becauseof the weighted eyes that enable it to sink a lot faster. Thisallows you to either get through the smaller fish in the schoolor to fish the fly on or near the bottom and keep it in thestrike zone for longer periods of time.

The Clouser has accounted for manyspecies of fish with probably the most common being the humbleflathead (a surprise to many newcomers to the sport). Because thefly can be fished on the bottom, you can fish it in short sharpstrips so it kicks up the sand and attracts the attention of thelazy hunter (flathead). Moving beyond flathead, other speciesinclude tuna, trevally, mackerel, barramundi, giant herring,tarpon; the list really is endless.

Fishing the Clouser has manybenefits:

• Because of the position of the hook (riding hook up), it is virtually a snag proof fly.
• The hook up style of the fly often gives a better hook set in the fish's mouth. I have found this especially so with tarpon.
• The weighted eyes and the materials give the fly an enticing movement through the water.

With all this in mind, lets have alook at the simple tying procedure for the Clouser.

Recipe for the Clouser:

• Hook- Gamakatsu SL12S from size 2.
• Thread- Danvilles flat waxed nylon. Colour is your choice, however I have used pink here as it shows better in the photos.
• Body- White bucktail
• Wing- Pink bucktail. You can change colour preferences to suit.
• Flash- Gold Crystal Flash.
• Eyes- Chrome eyes. By using different weighted eyes, you can vary your sink rate to suit your conditions.

Tying procedure.

1. Place the hook firmly in the vice and crimp thebarb. Start the thread at the hook eye and wind down to adistance of about one hook eye back, and attach the eyes using afigure eight wrap.

2. Advance the thread in front of the eyes and fixa small amount of white bucktail. The length should be about 11/2 times that of the hook shank.

3. Continue to tie the bucktail down over the topof the eyes and to a point in line with the bend in the shank.Advance the thread back up to the eye of the hook. Be sure to tiefirmly.

4. Turn the fly over, or rotate the vice (forrotary vice users) and tie in another small amount of whitebucktail about the same length as the previous piece. Be surethat this piece 'kicks up' over the eyes.

5. Tie in 3-4 strands of gold Crystal Flash oneither side. Be sure to spread the individual strands when fixingthem.

6. Tie in the pink bucktail directly on top of theWhite so as it forms a neat head of thread. Make sure thebucktail is spread evenly over the top of the fly. To do this,look head-on to the fly and make sure it is symmetrical.

7. Whip finish the thread and trim the excess.

This fly really is a simplepattern and is very worthwhile to have in your fly box for manyreasons. Be sure to tie it in many colour variations and hooksizes, and to vary the size of the chrome eyes as well to giveyou different sink rates.

As I mentioned earlier, this flywas originally tied using natural materials, however, you can usesynthetics such as 'fish hair', 'kinky fibre', and 'polarfibre'. There are others out there and it is best to justexperiment and find what works for your particular situation.

Words and picturesCopyright, Anthony Gomes.

SaltWaterFlyFishing in Australia, 2001.