The Clouser Minnow, along with Lefty’s Deceiver, is one of the most famous baitfish fly patterns. Though originally designed to catch smallmouth bass on the Susquehanna River, it’s been known to catch more fish species, in both fresh and saltwater, than possibly any other fly pattern (except maybe the woolly bugger). It was designed in 1987 by Bob Clouser, a Pennsylvania fly shop owner and guide, and draws its lineage from bucktail streamers. The name was originally “Clouser Deep Minnow”. It was coined by Lefty Kreh, a noted Fly Fishing writer, in a 1989 article in Fly Fisherman.
Bob has said: “My main goal in designing that type of fly, was to mimmick the movement of an escaping baitfish. The eyes themselves don’t do it, it is locating the weight that makes the fly move all the time. When you retrieve the fly it rises, and when you pause, the fly darts off to the side or drops down. It never stops moving.” [1]
“I used to tie pretty close to the same bucktail streamer with quite a bit of lead wrapped on the hook. I never covered the lead and eye appeal wasn’t very good, but it caught plenty of fish to suit me. When I saw these barbell eyes that Wapsi fly company sent me, I knew that I could use the barbell eyes to aesthetically complete the fly. I painted them to look like eyes and the fly was complete.” [1]
The fly is always weighted with dumbbell eyes. Traditionally, the fly is tied with bucktail fibers and crystal flash, but many variations have been developed with various colours, artificial hairs and different flashes. But what creates a Clouser Minnows is the dumbell eyes and how the underwing and overwing are tied.
Recipe:
Hook: size 1/0 to 10, long or short shank. Typical hook is TMC 811S
Thread: 6/0 matching underwing colour
Tail: None
Body: None
Wing: Bucktail, white underwing and brown, gray, chartreuse overwing with flash
Head: Thread
Bead: Dumb bell eyes painted red or chartreuse
Type: Streamer
Originator: Bob Clouser (1987)
[1] http://www.byrdultrafly.com/clouser.htm, May 5th, 2020