Clouser Minnow, You're Not So Bad After All

It seems like when it comes to fly tying, everyone has a fly or material that they don't like to work with.  For me, and this is probably going to make you laugh, it's deer hair or any kind.  Spinning hair, stacking hair, or even bucktail seem to befuddle me.  I can't seem to make it flair when I want and/or I can't get the proportions right.  If you didn't laugh earlier, you're going to really laugh now: I used to hate to tie clouser minnows...until recently.

I sat down with a young man a few weeks ago that wanted to learn a baitfish pattern for bass.  We settled on a clouser but I gave him the disclaimer that I didn't like to tie, or subsequently, tie the fly.  He inquired as to why and the rant was on!  The hair falls out, it twists around the shank, I put in hair that's too short or too long or too thick or too sparse, dumbbell eyes seem to move too much, I make the noses to thick, I clog up the eye, and I don't particularly care for the action.  With all the being said, we sat down to tie a clouser and for some reason, it all came together on that day.

Maybe I slowed down.  Maybe I paid better attention to details.  Maybe I just gave more attention to the things that made me mad in the past.  Regardless, my fly turned out pretty good.  Now fast forward a few weeks.

I was fishing with this particular student the other day and he started talking about how he was a better caster than me.  Then he accepted my challenge for a little contest.  Then he had the gall to say he was going to beat me and cast three times further!  And that was the time I went and got my eight weight from my truck.  For fun, I tied on a clouser just to mess with him.  This was the very clouser that I had tied with him and he indeed remembered it.  After a thorough whooping, I was about to put the rod away but had to make one more cast.  As my line neared the bank, my fly got hammered by a bass.  I'm not sure which one of us was more surprised and it ended up weighing close to a pound.  It was the biggest fish that either of us had caught that day and I started thinking that maybe I was one to something.  After we released the fish, I headed to some water that had some cover and structure.  It just looked bassy.  I ended up catching four more bass and that was four more than I had ever caught on a clouser.  It was something that I didn't see coming and a really pleasant surprise.  So of course, only one thing can happen at this point...I am clouser tying freak that can't wait to tie on another clouser and chase some largemouth/white bass/hybrids.  Life's funny sometimes I guess and not lacking in irony.  Now if I could only figure out how to spin deer hair!