Best Synthetic Clouser Material

[cole m.]

I like Bucktail, but I am trying to shy away from it.

Slinky Fibre?

This will be for the salt.

[matt boutet]

I like Bucktail, but I am trying to shy away from it.

Just curious – why?

[Rob Snowhite]

here is what i’ve been tying a bunch of

mustad 1/0 salty hook
tie down 8-10 strands of salt water crystal flash (i’m using the chartruse one that glows in dark)
tie down barbell eyes over flash
tie in super clouser hair – white
flip fly over and tie in sparkle hair with an inch sticking past the eye
tie down and fold that inch back, over what you just tied down

it has a nice profile in the water and got me a nice small mouth in WVa. two weeks ago (before i flipped my boat and LOST ALL MY FRIGGIN SMALLIE FLIES)

the super hair gives the fly some bulk and the sparkle hair lays down nicely over the super hair to yield a fishy profile.

i’ll try to post pics maybe tonight. been tying a crap load for orders

[Josh England]

Just curious – why?

I prefer bucktail, but spanish, blues ect.. will trash flies pretty quick if they are made of bucktail, I always use flash-n-slinky clousers when fishing the beach for those fish. Polar fibre make a good looking clouser also.

[Gary Sundin]

I generally will not use bucktail for clousers, except on small white bass flies.

[Grant Wright]

I like EP stacked wih some crystal flash and yak hair, sometimes a piece of flashabou on each side to make a lateral line.

I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to the dear hair; every time I start working with it my allergies go into a fit.

[Bob Riggins]

I’ve tried a lot of things for clousers, but have never found anything that is as good a bucktail.

[Grant Wright]

Gentlemen,

Help me out, when I tie a clouser with bucktail the fly has almost no added ‘action’ unless I am stripping the fly.

[Kyle Kulig]

Only that it porcupines when tied just a touch to tight and is difficult to work with.

[charlie kreitler]

I think the main benefit of the bucktail is its natural buoyancy. The buoyant wing of bucktail keeps the hook tracking point up, not the location of the lead eyes. You can certainly use other materials, but the fly will ride differently through the water. Check out a Popovic conehead jiggy for something similar constructed out of synthetics.

[Rob Snowhite]

synthetics can allways be trimmed down if too big,

photos:  ( i was a bit schnockered last night, meant to post image not url)

materials

product:

[Josh England]

I feel one of the major benifits of bucktail over synthetic is the natural taper that most synthetics don’t have. Bucktail will also give you a good bit of action in the water, but you have to find a good tail with soft /fine hair. They have been hard to find around here, most the tails around here have hair that is stiff/thick, i’ve had started ordering them for feather craft. Check out Bob pops hollow fly, it’s made of all bucktail, and moves great in the water.
Here is one of my clousers made with flash-n-slinky for spanish/blues.

[Tim Angeli]

Grant,

I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to the dear hair; every time I start working with it my allergies go into a fit.

Same thing happens to me when tying spun deer hair heads.  I think I’m going to have to start taking benadryl before tying.

-Tim

[mick mccorcle]

For smaller Clousers, I love to use Arctic Fox.

[keith b]

I just picked up some Unique Hair this morning from BPS and it looks like slinky hair.

[marc arndt]

Yak hair works great for some of the bigger clousers I tie for saltwater, and it also has good color qualities in water for bass fishing.

[Mike Anderson]

Craft fur is great.

[stevegibson]

I have been using Super Hair when bluefish and Spanish macks are in the area. It holds up to their teeth quite well. Plus, it still produces seatrout and pompano.

[Allan Dozier]

For saltwater use I like synthetics too.

I plan on living forever, so far so good.

[stevegibson]

Craft Fur sure makes for some pretty Clousers. However, I find that the stuff tangles impossibly after a couple of casts or a few fish (whichever comes first!).

Craft Fur makes great tails on flies, though.

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