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The Clouser in my view is the quintessential salt water fly. It can be tied in sizes to suit Bream or Bill fish and with the correct dressing and size is equally at home in salt water, trout and bass fisheries. Many flies whilst not acknowledging their heritage are based on the Clouser recipe. Have a good look at David Dodd’s Bream Fly or John Schofield’s Bass Vampire and you will see that at the very least are influenced by the Clouser recipe and specifically dressed for Bream & Bass respectfully.

The original Bob Clouser recipe calls for the use of Bucktail as the dominant dressing for the fly. It works very well but on the down side it's not a durable fly and you may want to consider using more durable materials as in this synthetic clouser.

I have tied this fly with Faux Bucktail which Fish Scull have specifically engineered for tying clousers and other flies. The only thing you need to keep in mind when swapping over to Faux Bucktail is that as it is not hollow like real Bucktail and therfor has to be tied in differently and that the tips are all the same length prior to being trimmed off the shank whereas the tips on real Bucktail are all just a little different in length ... so here is how you tie a clouser using Faux Bucktail.

Materials

Process

A	Start off with your big fly thread and wind that half way down the length of the hook and then half of that distance back toward the eye of the hook. Understanding hooks

B	Put a drop of super glue on top of the hook shank exactly where you intend to tie the eyes in. Position the eyes on top of the drop of super glue and tie them in on top of the hook shank using tight figure 8 wraps. To make sure that the eyes don’t rotate on the hook shank include a couple of tight wraps the thread around the base of the eyes on top of the hook shank and between every couple of figure of eight wraps take a firm wrap of thread around the hook shank. Your finished with the big fly thread now so tie a couple of half hitches in the big fly thread and trim away the excess.

C	Tie in your denier thread now directly behind the dumbbell eyes.

D	So as to avoid too much body material in front of the dumbbell eyes I tie half the belly of the fly in behind the dumbbell eyes. If you tie all the belly material in using the steps you would follow if using natural bucktail you will finish with too much bucktail in front of the dumbbell eyes to make a neat cone shaped head on the fly. Select about one quarter of the Faux Bucktail that your are going to use for the full fly from the shank and trim that off toward its base. Dealing with long strands of synthetic materials Do take care when selecting bunches of Faux Bucktail that you don't select too much. From my experience a lightly dressed clouser is always better than an overdressed clouser.

E	Take your small bunch of Faux Bucktail and hold hold over the fly so that you have an idea of how much you will need. I target a tail on my clouser flies to be one and a quarter times the length of the hook. The Mustard 34007 SS hook that I am using for this fly is size #3/0 and is 40mm long so the tail will protrude behind the back of the hook 50mm making this a 90mm fly.

F	Leaving plenty of space for a final trim of the butt of the Bucktail massage the fibers of Bucktail between your thumb and forefinger until it is flat.

G	Again well below where your going to make the final trim of the Bucktail trim away the butt ends with a diagonal cut.

H	Put the Faux Bucktail into a deer hair stacker and carefully shake the Bucktail down so that the butt ends square up and the tips of the Bucktail become slightly offset rather than square as they were when presented on the shank.

I	Repeat step E and this time trim the excess butt of the Faux Bucktail square to the back of the dumbbell eyes.

K	Repeat steps E through to J this time tying the Faux Bucktail in front and behind the dumbbell eyes. Trim the but ends of the third quarter of Faux Bucktail in front of the dumbbell eyes off at a angle as far back from the eye of the hook as possible, apply a drop of super glue, and lock it in place with firm wraps of thread. This completes the belly of the fly.

L	Invert the hook in the vice.

M	Tie in ten strands of krystal flash in front of the dumbbell eyes with the tips extending behind the fly the same distance as the tail of the fly.

N	Select a third quarter of the Faux Bucktail and repeat steps E through to J this time tying the Faux Bucktail in front of the dumbbell eyes only. Trim the but ends of the third quarter off Faux Bucktail of at a angle as far back from the eye of the hook as possible, apply a drop of super glue, and lock it in place with firm wraps of thread.

O	You can make the fourth quarter of the Faux Bucktail the same colour as the first three quarters of the fly but in this case I have decided to make the fourth quarter of the fly chartreuse. Using your final quarter of Faux Bucktail repeat steps E through to J again tying the Faux Bucktail only in front of the dumbbell eyes. Trim the but ends of the fourth quarter of Faux Bucktail off at a angle as far back from the eye of the hook as possible, apply a drop of super glue, and lock it in place with firm wraps of thread. This completes the wing of the fly.

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