What material do you like for Clouser minnow?

[kbobb]

Deer tail? Artificial material?
how doees this affect the "action" of the fly?

Thanks

 

[RLeep2]

Beyond bucktail, I have used (ranked in order of preference) 1- Craft Fur. I think it makes the best silhouette, but finding craft fur long enough for my normal SMB Clousers has been a problem for me. That said, I've never bought any that was specifically sold as fly tying mat'l. Just regular craft store stuff. 2- Steve Farrar Flash Blend. Good silhouette but not as good as either bucktail or craft fur IMO. 3- Ostrich herl. Not very good for Clousers because of too slim silhouette and poor durability. Two fish basically wrecks it.

My two cents..

 

[laurelrun]

Back before the pandemic, I went to a tying class that Bob Clouser taught and he liked UV2 bucktails. But you can also just buy 'em from the man himself: https://clousersflyshop.com/products/ols/products/long-deer-tails-clouser-select

 

[dc410]

I definitely prefer bucktail hair for my Clouser Minnows. There is something about a sparsely tied Clouser using deer hair that entices a lot of takes by all species of fish.

I killed a very mature buck on Saturday (3.5 - 4.5 years old). The buck had a beautiful tail with some very long hair on it. Definitely the nicest bucktail I ever got from an animal that I harvested in my 45 years of hunting. I skinned it out and it is curing right now. This tail will pretty much be dedicated to tying larger Clouser Minnows.

 

[JerryC]

I tie mine with bucktail. I haven't tried tying them with any artificial materials. I don't think you can get the sparseness with the artificial hairs. That said I did pick up some of the artificial bucktail this year to see what it was like. I didn't tie any Clousers with it but did tie some jigs.

My main complaint about it was it's slippery and finer than natural bucktail. Since I've got it I'll probably tie some Clousers with it over the winter just to see what they look like.

 

[kbobb]

Thanks for the replies. I have tied them with deer tail and artificial (unique hair, slinky fiber, and neer-hair).
Those fibers do give some motion in the water but the ends are kinda chopped off evenly and don't have the irregular tips that deer tail have. They also have a dice vertical fish-like profile when dry but kinda collapse when wet.
Getting ready to tie up a bunch - planning a full scale assault on smallmouth next year and wanted to see what folks are using, if anything better (or worse) than deer tail.

Jerry C - I tie my artificial fibers in at the midpoint of the strand and fold back then wrap again to help keep the slippery fibers on the hook.

BTW - congrats on the buck DC!

 

[scs]

I’m trying some with squirrel tail. We’ll see what happens

Steve

 

[Bamboozle]

Thanks for the replies. I have tied them with deer tail and artificial (unique hair, slinky fiber, and neer-hair).
Those fibers do give some motion in the water but the ends are kinda chopped off evenly and don't have the irregular tips that deer tail have...

I use nothing but artificial hair and use a pair of coarse thinning shears to "un-even" the ends.

BTW - The fish love them them...

 

[shakey]

I tye some small ones with bead chain eyes and two colors of mallard flank .

I have used many materials for them, synthetics and bucktail.

There was a thread on here recently about turning craft yarn into EP fiber.

I think that would be interesting to try

 

[Kyle]

buck tails for me. although this past summer i tried using a synthetic hair. and the results were fantastic. caught many smallmouths on this fly. now the fly is in retirement.

thats the before and after pictures. maybe 10 smallmouths on the same fly and countless casts.

 

[TimMurphy]

Deer tail? Artificial material?
how doees this affect the "action" of the fly?

Thanks

Dear kbobb,

For bass and for larger flies I stick to bucktail pretty much. It's good for size 6 to 2/0 if you have decent bucktails. With larger flies, as in bigger than 2/0, I have tied some with synthetic hair materials and they work OK, but I like traditional things. It's hard to find bucktail long enough for the bigger flies.

For trout, I love to tie Clouser Foxee minnows on Tiemco 200R knock off hooks in size 4 to 8. I use fox tail and coyote tail to mimic typical trout stream minnows like dace. Everything is pretty much dark brown over light brown or gray, and black over gray. They work great for trout.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[kbobb]

Thanks folks - looks like we all make the various materials work under certain conditions. I will try both types of materials this coming season. Also want to experiment with unweighted streamers/clouser type flies on a sinking fly line.