Clouser Minnow
Materials
- Hook — Standard streamer/saltwater hook (Mustad 3366 or S71SNP, TMC 811S), sizes 2/0-8
- Thread — 140-denier flat nylon or 6/0, white or to match wing
- Eyes — Painted lead/brass dumbbell eyes sized to hook (Clouser standard); small bead-chain eyes for the shallow-water variant
- Belly — White bucktail, sparse, 1.5-2x shank length
- Flash — Pearl or silver Krystal Flash, 4-8 strands
- Wing — Chartreuse bucktail (or olive, tan, gray, brown), sparse, even with or slightly longer than belly
- Head finish — Head cement or thin UV-cure resin over thread wraps and eye lashings
Tying steps
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Start thread and build a base about one-third of the shank back from the hook eye. Lash the dumbbell eyes on top of the shank with tight figure-eight wraps, then circle the wraps horizontally under the eyes to cinch them. Add a drop of cement or superglue.
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Cut a sparse clump of white bucktail, about half a pencil's thickness. Tie it in on top of the shank in front of the eyes, then carry the thread behind the eyes and bind the bucktail down against the shank so it lies flat over the eyes.
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Return the thread in front of the eyes and invert the hook in the vise (point up). The white belly now sits under the shank in the fished orientation.
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Tie in 4-8 strands of Krystal Flash on the now-upward side, extending just past the bucktail tips. Doubling the strands around the thread keeps them locked in.
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Tie in a sparse clump of chartreuse (or other back-color) bucktail over the flash, tips roughly even with or slightly past the white belly. All wing material is secured in front of the eyes only.
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Build a neat tapered thread head, whip finish, and coat the head and the eye lashings with cement or UV resin. Sparse flies sink faster and swim better.
Notes
Bob Clouser designed this weighted bucktail streamer for Susquehanna River smallmouth in the mid-1980s; Lefty Kreh named it and claimed more than 87 species on it. Dumbbell eyes lashed on top of the shank flip the fly hook-point up and give it a jigging, fleeing-baitfish action. Sparse is the rule: if it looks like too little hair, it is probably right.