[Prospector]

Seeing as I'm kinda new to flyfishing I've been doing some reading and it seems to me clousers are the go to fly? I have a few that I fish but mostly fish deceivers and epoxys and some ultra hair stuff. I'm fishing mostly a 10wt WFI in water that might go to 12ft within casting distance. I've never noticed a difference in catching with the clousers but found they hurt allot more on the back of your head unless the winds right or your casting sidearm. I'm thinking there's more to this clouser thing that I don't realize? On another note, being the clouser is weighted could you get the same effect with a sink tip with a deceiver? Is it the depth or the action alone that makes the difference? Is a clouser a fly that gets used mostly on a WFF when you need to get down more than a WFI with a deceiver? I've got lots of questions. I have some books but they don't define when to stuff. Questions I ask of people get me more confused than I was cause everyone's got their own thing going from fishing running lines with lead core tips to fishing cutup pieces of Finess Fish. Help! Prospector

 

[Jaiem]

Hi Prospector.

I think the great popularity and success of the Clouser style is that it's was the first easily made, easily weighted fly since the use of large bead chain eyes/weights (commonly known as "Whistler" flies because of the sound that make when casting - a great way to clear the beach around you! ). The clouser was actually first intended as a freshwater smallmouth fly but quickly proved it's value as a saltwater pattern.

The clouser's design makes the fly bounce and flutter, assuming a strip-pause-strip retrieve (bass typically hit as the fly settles). That's because the weight is concentrated front and below the hook shank. Contrast that with a Jiggy fly where the cone head distributes the weight around the hook shank thus giving a more darting and zig-zag action for the same retrieve style. I'm sure the weighting helps too for those times you need to get deeper. But I think it's the action the weight gives and not the sinking quality that makes the clouser so effective.

I don't think you can get the same effect with a deceiver for this reason. It's the weight on the fly, not the sinking per se, that helps. Although if you want a deceiver-like fly you can make a flat-wing clouser or a deceiver in a clouser style. There's a video (don't recall the name) that has Bob Clouser and Lefty Kreh together making a clouser-deceiver fly that looks great!

I think the clouser can be put in the same catagory as the deceiver in as much as there is no one right way (or no wrong way) to make one. I've seen people use the FinS tail as you mention as well as curly tails, mixing natural and synthetic materials, Blanton style (lots of flash off the tail - I like that a lot for daytime fishing!), etc etc.

IMO you can fish a clouser on any style of line. I typically use them on intermediate or sinking lines but have successfully fished clousers on floating lines, especially when fishing around shallow rocks. The floating line keeps the fly from snagging too often.

Hope this helps.

Jaiem
ArtsNFlies.com

 

[craigkoproski]

Love those clousers

One of my favorite spots to fish is right in Stamford harbor poeple laugh at me when I take them there because it is about a 4 minute boat ride and at dead low you can easily see the bottom. The formation off of this point is ideal for fishing clousers I work the point starting very close to shore and start bouncing the clouser off the rocks working my way into deeper water with each cast it usually doesn't take very long to hook up. I get a much better feel of the bottom with the clouse due to the weight much more so than a deceiver. Sometimes in the very early morning you can see them working the surface then I will use a deceiver or even a popper but I have had much more success with the clouser using a sink tip line. Good luck.

 

[615965]

WHATCHA SAY we start posting some flies everyones been tyin over the cccoolllddd winter, i'll start.. this here is a crease fly that glows in the dark.... wonder how it will work?

 

[Prospector]

Thanks guys, I think I got it now. Jaiem I woulda guessed it had to be the action mostly but needed confirmation. Craig, I never thought about feeling the bottom with a fly rod? 35 years on the beach and I feel like I'm in kindergarden flyfishing. Thanks again, I'll look at them with a different perspective from now on. Prospector

 

[619912]

I have been flyfishing in the salt now for about 8 years and tying all of my own flies. If I was only allowed to cary a couple of flies, they would be a clouser and a deceiver. I have however, over the past couple of years been tying more jiggy flies than clousers - I think that the action is more jig-like(hense the name)and I find that when fishing around exposed rocks at low tide, the dumbell eyes on the clousers occasionally snap off when they clip the rocks. 90% of the time I fish an intermediate line when wade fihing. I will realy only fish a full sinking line when fishing from a boat. As far as getting hit in the back with a clouser or other weighted fly, we've all done it. That's where the saying "chuck and duck" came from.

 

[Prospector]

flykid, chuck and duck you say? Well I'm still working on the first part and the hat I wear helps abit on the second part. I just received a care package from my buddy with some clousers included by mail and will give them a workout soon. Jiggy's you say? What now! I need more flies? I haven't mastered the ones I've got now! Thanks! Prospector