# Bead chain clousers



## whjr15 (Jun 16, 2005)

So, for the first time, I tied up some clousers (#2 hook) without the lead eyes and went with bead chain eyes instead. Since the flow was slow and low, I only tied a few to try out on my steelhead scouting/smallie trip; which is probably a good thing because I think something is wrong with them! They swim upside down (or right-side up?!) Whatever you wanna call it, they swim with the eyes up and hook pointed down, since the lack of weight keeps it from turning over.

Is that just the name of the game without lead eyes, or is there a trick that I don't know about?

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I'm still smallie skunked on the fly! Bring on steelhead season already!!!!!!


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

whjr15 said:


> So, for the first time, I tied up some clousers (#2 hook) without the lead eyes and went with bead chain eyes instead. Since the flow was slow and low, I only tied a few to try out on my steelhead scouting/smallie trip; which is probably a good thing because I think something is wrong with them! They swim upside down (or right-side up?!) Whatever you wanna call it, they swim with the eyes up and hook pointed down, since the lack of weight keeps it from turning over.
> 
> Is that just the name of the game without lead eyes, or is there a trick that I don't know about?
> 
> Oh, and in case you're wondering, I'm still smallie skunked on the fly! Bring on steelhead season already!!!!!!


The ones I have tied with bead chain rode correctly in the water. Something you might try is (if you didn't do it) tying all the bucktail on the hook point side. That should help the fly ride correctly. Another trick is to use a hook with a down turned eye instead of a straight eye. The down turned eye, with the hook point-up, can also help flip the fly over.


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## whjr15 (Jun 16, 2005)

HipWader said:


> The clouser minnow is designed to ride with the eyes on the bottom and the hook at the top facing forward....prevents from snagging on the bottom....bead chain eyes won't have enough weight on it to flip over the hook...gotta use the dumbell eyes....


So what do you use when the water is super low & slow and lead eyes are causing you to snag?

And thanks TheCream, I'll give those a try... But out of curiosity, did you tie the ones you mentioned conventionally? Or did you do anything different? (Other than the eyes of course)


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## Yakphisher (Jul 9, 2013)

When water levels are low I switch to my EP or traditional flies with no weight. I don't use much bead chain on my Clouser's cause I usually want that fly immediately on the bottom acting normal thru the swing. I just soft pop the fly off the bottom like a normal minnow does.

With bead chain eye you need to go sparce on the wing materials. I seen way to many Clouser's tied overdress for it work properly.


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## whjr15 (Jun 16, 2005)

Yeah I tied them VERY sparse, maybe 10 hairs per side. I guess I'll just scrap the idea of using bead chain eyes when the conditions are low&slow!


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## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

Bead chain clousers work fine...If you do have any trouble with the ride position , a lighter wire hook can be helpful......as far as snagging....I pretty much fish a sink tip line with streamers.....if the water is less than 2.5 ft I go with a deceiver style streamer......when I fish rivers except for the Mad I use small or extra small eyes....on the Mad I use small or medium....as far as bead chain clousers I reserve those for the small size's like 6 and 8's once I hit the size 4 mark extra smalls and my normal size clousers are 3x long 2's they get small and medium eye's.......size 6 and 8 clousers can be awesome in the middle of the summer , since there are a lot of juvenile bait fish around.....


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## Yakphisher (Jul 9, 2013)

I wouldn't scrap the idea of using them since they still do make decent eyes although there is **** ton of other ways of going about it.


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