# lake erie shiner clouser minnow



## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

I just made a few lake erie shiner clouser minnows. I used bead chain eyes for a slower sink rate and white bucktail for the bottom olive and flash for the midle and some of the black olive mixed for the top. alos wrapped shank with crystal flash. heres the pics what ya think? of course these will ride hook point up also.


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## kruggy1 (Feb 6, 2008)

LOOKS PRETTY DARN GOOD!!! between seeing that one and that foam dragonfly u do nice work.


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## Janus (Jul 26, 2006)

Those look really good. I have a few emerald shiner clousers but have never had luck with the clouser minnow..but I might not be presenting them right, maybe I'll try them again this summer.
Janus


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

thanks for the comments. I am gonna make some more I made 3 so far. will maybe add some red poly for gills this time? I never had luck the few times I used um either but then I learned that the hook was suppose to be facing up. duh lol. then I tied a chartruese and white one and used it for about 15 minutes. casted it in a fast moving riffle let it swing through it and gave it some short strips. all of a sudden feels like a snag. ended up being the strongest fighting creek chub I ever fought!! must of been a territorial male or something haha. thing was a beast for being 10 inches or so!! man I tell ya he was a killer! no joke. rofl. thats my only luck on a clouser. then again I always tied them with dumbell eyes and they seem to head to the bottom in a hurry! thats why I used bead chain instead. maybe it will take a few seconds to sink and will get ambushed from underneath. I don't fish usually deeper than 8 to 10 feet anyways.


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

heres one with a lil red poly yarn for some gills. crowded the eye a lil but oh well.


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## kruggy1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Thats a cool one to, my only luck with the clouser minnow is a couple rockbass and one tiny smallie.


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

thats what we target in the rivers so maybe I will get lucky. could also work great with heavier dumbell eyes on the lake. you could prolly catch white bass all day.


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## Flyfish Dog (Nov 6, 2007)

Looks good, I am with Janus, never had much luck on them either but it don't mean they don't. I know of some that all they use and catch fish. Just more of confidence thats all. I have a bunch of different style but prefer EP Minnow flies myself.


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## ledslinger (Aug 24, 2006)

Fishaholic69 said:


> you could prolly catch white bass all day.


Ive been tying a lighter colored fly like a half and half with a white bunny strip in place of the hackles and a bunch of silver flash and olive topping for white bass----im tying the same thing darker for smallies


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

led how do you tie 2 different bunny strips on the hook shank??? send me the pattern or pictures and instructions. love to add me some flys in my boxes! anyone ever heard of a gillbuster? its basically a rabbit strip tied as a tail same length as shank. then thread wrapped thicker as a body with dumbbell eyes. heres the pattern. I didn't wanna waste the thread building up the bodies so I just added some black chenille for my body instead of thread. heard white can be used for crappies. prolly white bass also. hear olive is good for bass too. this is the pattern.
http://www.texasflyreport.com/patterns/pattern.aspx?id=15


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## steelheader007 (Apr 8, 2004)

Well it looks great and will catch fish, but use more white and use 2/3 of the green! The gills are great.


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## Flyfish Dog (Nov 6, 2007)

I use magnum strips folded in half.


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## ledslinger (Aug 24, 2006)

Fishaholic69 said:


> led how do you tie 2 different bunny strips on the hook shank??? http://www.texasflyreport.com/patterns/pattern.aspx?id=15


just one strip to provide some wiggle---tie just like the gilbuster but tie white bucktail in like a clouser and wind it back around the eyes and flip the hook over in the vise and finish the top with flashabou/crystal flash and a small amount of olive bucktail


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## fishon (Apr 20, 2004)

very very impresive... i would love to try those out for some walleye!!!!

Frank


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

ok thanks for all the tips and ideas. I will try to make some like you guys said. I have olive zonker but not white. what color do you use as the tail? I have to get some white now that I know they are worth it.


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## JumpinJackBass (Nov 13, 2007)

those shinners look good.....only thing is you might want to use a little less wraps near the head like you said it looks a little crowded and it may throw off the weight distribution... try to keep your head wraps even with the wraps behind the bead chain eyes to keep a proportioned fly... just a thought!


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

next time I will have to do that.


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## fisher person (Jul 2, 2004)

I've tied a few clousers but have never caught a bass on a clouser. I must be doing something wrong b/c I keep hearing how well these flies work. 
Is there a special presentation to use? I have tried fishing it by casting upstream and drifting back towards me in the current, and stripping upstream like a minnow. Tried hopping it like a crawfish on the bottom also w/o luck. 
The only thing i havent tried would be swinging it like a streamer or using it under a large indicator.

I did catch one nice 10 lb carp on a clouser in the Huron River when I first started trying clousers and thought I found my new go to fly. But I haven't caught anything since.

My best smallmouth fly is an estaz bugger in chartruse or purple , sometimes a propeller in front of a bead works well.


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

seems like alot of us never really caught much on the clouser? what are we doing wrong? I have basically fished it the same way you did. maybe we need to give bob clouser a call. this fly have supposedly caught hundreds of kinds of fish in both fresh and salt. but then again I used mine only for 15 minutes and changed it after I caught one fish. I am like that. no bites... change the fly. no bites.. new fly.. then still no bites.. add tippet....then repeat steps over and over lol.

maybe we are using the wrong colors? only one I used was chartruese and white and caught one chub. also used red and white once for a few minutes but nothin. this was at the end of the year tho. lucky you with that huge carp!


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## Flyfish Dog (Nov 6, 2007)

Fishaholic69 said:


> seems like alot of us never really caught much on the clouser? what are we doing wrong? I have basically fished it the same way you did. maybe we need to give bob clouser a call. this fly have supposedly caught hundreds of kinds of fish in both fresh and salt. but then again I used mine only for 15 minutes and changed it after I caught one fish. I am like that. no bites... change the fly. no bites.. new fly.. then still no bites.. add tippet....then repeat steps over and over lol.
> 
> maybe we are using the wrong colors? only one I used was chartruese and white and caught one chub. also used red and white once for a few minutes but nothin. this was at the end of the year tho. lucky you with that huge carp!


It's more like wether if have Confidence in the fly or not. If you having goood luck then stick with, nothing wrong to experimenting and if it don't work then go back to what works best for you. That one reason I am fly fishing now and not looking back at spin/bait casting no more.


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## ledslinger (Aug 24, 2006)

Clousers are great---ive caught steelhead,all trout, largemouth .smallmouth, crappie. carp and white bass in fresh water and snook, speckled trout ,weakfish, false albacore, blues and stripers in salt---if you dont get anything change your depth and speed rather than your color of fly---you are probably fishing where they arent.


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## Flyfish Dog (Nov 6, 2007)

You are correct Led. Presentation is key.


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## gsteel (Feb 16, 2008)

I use the clousers in char/wht, olive/wht, and black for steel. Many fish to hand with them. I dead drift them, strip them, and swing them. That pattern works great in all 3 of those styles. Cut down on your wraps especially in front of the eyes. When trimming the bucktail dont cut it straight cut it at an angle that will help get rid of your bulky head. One more thing, when using bucktail for streamers it isnt really important to make a body wrap unless you really want to. Keep it sparse, alittle is always better than to much especially for that pattern.


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

thanks gsteel I will keep that in mind when I make the rest.


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## jkurtz7 (Jan 17, 2008)

Thats my favorite Clouser color combo. I works very well on small mouth, large mouth, channel cats, hell it works on all fish.

Jeremy


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

good to know. when I seen a shiner pattern I had to make it


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