Yeah, I'm definitely hooked. I tied 5-6 more Clouser-like minnows. I find that I'm wanting to put more and more material on the fly - definitely more than what a real closer looks like - anything wrong with this? I also would like to try my hand at some larger streamers for pike - do you know where I could find the weighted heads?
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Nothin really wrong with using more material. Benefits of using less are a faster sink rate, can tie more flies with a bucktail, slimmer profile, and its easier to securely fasten smaller amounts of material to the hook. Benefits of using more are that it gives it a bigger profile, moves more water, and sinks slower. It kinda depends on what baitfish are around you. Around here there are a lot of yellow perch and fathead minnows, which have a slimmer profile. Here are what my clousers look like...
You can see I put some epoxy on the smaller one, it really helps with durability. That little guy has been in dozens of crappie, perch, and pike mouths lol.
Here's one straight from Bob Clouser's web site...
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/clouserflyfishing_2212_13857878
What kind of weighted heads are you looking for? Feather craft has pretty much everything. I use them for hard to find items.
You can see I put some epoxy on the smaller one, it really helps with durability. That little guy has been in dozens of crappie, perch, and pike mouths lol.
Here's one straight from Bob Clouser's web site...
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/clouserflyfishing_2212_13857878
What kind of weighted heads are you looking for? Feather craft has pretty much everything. I use them for hard to find items.
Those look awesome! The real deal for sure. Where do you get the red dumbell eyes? The river that I've been fishing lately has very little diversity - Pike are definitely the primairy predators. They stock large trout in the spring and fall but the ones they stock in the spring are quickly fished out, and the ones that they stock in the fall (if any can avoid being caught) don't survive the winter. I'd imagine there are dace and other small minnow-like baitfish, but no other gamefish.
The water is also very low visibility - that is partly why I wanted to add some flash and color. The blue and red seemed to do well, but right now I think I'm just wanting to experiment with different color combos.
I'm looking for a bullet style weight that just slides over the eye of the hook. I assume it's just fastened down with epoxy? I saw a guy do something like this on youtube...
The water is also very low visibility - that is partly why I wanted to add some flash and color. The blue and red seemed to do well, but right now I think I'm just wanting to experiment with different color combos.
I'm looking for a bullet style weight that just slides over the eye of the hook. I assume it's just fastened down with epoxy? I saw a guy do something like this on youtube...
Most fly shops will have the red dumbell eyes (I like red because it can trigger predators)
If your fishing murkier water, I would keep tying them like you are, bushy with lots of flash. Try chartreuse/white, all white, and all black. Those are by far my top three colors. Grey/white and olive/white also work well. I've heard pink/white can be killer too, but I havent found pink bucktail locally.
The cone heads and bead heads just slide on to the hook, you don't need to do anything to attach them. You could use them to make a "jiggy" which is a Bob Popovics pattern, but traditional clousers just use the dumbell style eyes...
http://www.saltwaterflies.com/jiggy_fly_chartreuse.jpg
Pretty much exactly the same as a clouser, just a different head.
I really like clouser half and halfs better than standard clousers for pike, they have a bigger profile and move more water....
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/clouserflyfishing_2212_2850459
If your fishing murkier water, I would keep tying them like you are, bushy with lots of flash. Try chartreuse/white, all white, and all black. Those are by far my top three colors. Grey/white and olive/white also work well. I've heard pink/white can be killer too, but I havent found pink bucktail locally.
The cone heads and bead heads just slide on to the hook, you don't need to do anything to attach them. You could use them to make a "jiggy" which is a Bob Popovics pattern, but traditional clousers just use the dumbell style eyes...
http://www.saltwaterflies.com/jiggy_fly_chartreuse.jpg
Pretty much exactly the same as a clouser, just a different head.
I really like clouser half and halfs better than standard clousers for pike, they have a bigger profile and move more water....
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/clouserflyfishing_2212_2850459
The pink and white sounds great. I recently tied an all white one, I don't have any black material, but I'll get some of that too.
I'm loving the feather-craft site too, very easy to navigate and it looks like they have everything I need. Do you have your stuff in a case or something? Right now I'm trying to stuff everything into the box I got with the fly tying kit and it barely fits... not to mention its so disorganized.
So how do the cone heads stay attached?
Fly tying only starts saving you money when your 70 and have every material already haha. Btw it's hard to do at first, but if the fly isnt up to standards of "fishable" just save the hook, the most expensive part.
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Here is what I use for my fly tying stuff...
It's close to 4' tall and packed full. I still find myself needing new materials all the time lol.
The cones just slip over the hook, but they wont fit over the eye. The materials keep it pinned against the eye...
Here is the thread I use for almost all of my big flies. It's very strong and isn't as bulky as some threads...
And here's another fly you could tie up for pike, bass, and other big fish...
It's called a bunny fly, more of a style of fly than a specific pattern, you can make them any color, with different amounts and types of flash, weighted or unweighted. I generally tie them 6"+8" long, then you can cut it down on the water if you need a smaller fly. Normally I cover the eyes with epoxy, but lately I've just been using Zap gel (gel superglue) and it seems to work just fine, and its much faster than epoxy. By far my number one producer for pike
It's close to 4' tall and packed full. I still find myself needing new materials all the time lol.
The cones just slip over the hook, but they wont fit over the eye. The materials keep it pinned against the eye...
Here is the thread I use for almost all of my big flies. It's very strong and isn't as bulky as some threads...
And here's another fly you could tie up for pike, bass, and other big fish...
It's called a bunny fly, more of a style of fly than a specific pattern, you can make them any color, with different amounts and types of flash, weighted or unweighted. I generally tie them 6"+8" long, then you can cut it down on the water if you need a smaller fly. Normally I cover the eyes with epoxy, but lately I've just been using Zap gel (gel superglue) and it seems to work just fine, and its much faster than epoxy. By far my number one producer for pike
I also did some super small streamin' yesterday lol...
The fish...
The water...
My 7.5' fly rod easily spanned the width of this creek!
The fish...
The water...
My 7.5' fly rod easily spanned the width of this creek!
