Clouser Minnow

[Jdecoudres]

Just wondering if these look normal or what I need to do to fix them.

Thanks

[duckydoty]

They look like white bass catching machines to me. The only thing I do different is tie them just a little more sparce like the second from the bottom

[Jdecoudres]

OK thanks! Thats what I was wondering myself.

[westbranchfly]

Keep them sparse, and try a multitude of colors. You might look for the book "Clousers Flies".

[dave potts]

Bob Clouser always said that everyone puts too much bucktail on them.

[fishinwrench]

Bob Clouser always said that everyone puts too much bucktail on them.

True. I've seen that (sparseness) taken to the extreme though. You still have to have enough hair to slow the fall.

As long as you can drop a dry clouser on a magazine page and be able to see the print behind the hook bend then you're good.

The ones above look a bit too long for my taste. A #6 clouser from my box measures 2 1/4" and a #4 is just a hair over 2 1/2".

Might sound crazy but 1/4" can make or break you, even on aggressive feeders like White bass. If you see a lot of fish flashing behind your fly without feeling them hammer it then shortening the fly usually turns all those near hits into solid takes.

Synthetic hair can be trimmed to whatever length you want onstream, but with bucktail you are stuck with it the way it came off the vise. I still favor natural bucktail though.