A couple of steelhead and trout streamers just before nursing classes begin.

B

brookiesofpa

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Jan 15, 2012
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So this is one of my last few streamers for a while... I hope the emerald shiner works on fresh steelhead and the darker ones should work on brownies looking for a meal.
Materials list:
Hook Cabelas model 22 size 6 heavy nymph hook.
Stinger is a Matzuo #141062 size 8.
Tyger wire to attach stinger to front hook 15lb
real eyes size small dumbell.
Artic fox tail for white belly and icelandic sheep wool grey and chartuse for emerald pattern. 4 strands of DNA holo Chromosome flash in pearl. For darker pattern belly is red fox tail and dark olive dyed artic fox tail.
Tie in fox tail very sparse as it will open up a little in water. It provides lots of movement and so far the bass/panfish really like it.
Once fly is done cut off front hook and leave the stinger. I have found if you tie this fly longer than 2 1/2 inches long a small collar dubbed then attach materials just ahead of the collar will keep the materials from penciling in strong current. The streamer casts very nice cause you don't need lots of material on the hook. I think next spring I will tie some up in 5 and 6 inch lengths for pike and musky to see how they work.

Hope this will up load if it does any opnions will be welcome.
Enjoy.
Sorry for the poor quality of picts I cannot find my camera..Wife used it in Rome and I am not shure where she put it. This is a knock off of a fly I found while surfing the internet the origional was tied by a guy named Nick. He tied it on tube and calls it "better minnow".
 

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only problem i see it will act as a jig and dive head first and not swim as a minnow, other than that well tied.
 
sandfly wrote:
only problem i see it will act as a jig and dive head first and not swim as a minnow, other than that well tied.

I get into that argument with people all the time about my clousers, they claim that I tie in my eyes too far back on the shank, and that the jigging action is more attractive to fish. all in all, it's just a matter of personal preference.
 
sniperfreak223 wrote:
sandfly wrote:
only problem i see it will act as a jig and dive head first and not swim as a minnow, other than that well tied.

I get into that argument with people all the time about my clousers, they claim that I tie in my eyes too far back on the shank, and that the jigging action is more attractive to fish. all in all, it's just a matter of personal preference.


Good point. My 2 is that Clousers have a unique action when tied the way they were designed - with the dumbbell tied in well back from the hook eye. That is what makes it effective, IMO. Tied this way the fly sort of glides along like a minnow.

Tied the other way (with the dumbbell at the eye) it's no different than a fancy bucktail jig. A jig will catch fish, but a properly tied Clouser will, many times, vacuum up the fish. Again, just adding my 2.
 
That streamer should swim well in the water. IMO if you are fishing any streamer slow enought to worry about it jigging, then you are fishing it way too slow. :) At least for my style of fishing.

Nice ties btw. The circle hooks make all the difference, I just started adding them to some of my Smallmouth streamers. Those buggers short strike like nothing else.
 
Thanks for the input. The shank of the hook is only about half inch long after cutting off front hook so these streamers do not jig much in still water and even less in moving current. For what it's worth last late fall post spawn browns really like a streamer tied with a fish skull which do jig a bit due to the heavy head on them compared to the small dumbell eyes on these ones. I usually cast across stream for a swung presentation on a tight line. If the water is slow I use the same presentation but a retrieve. Can't wait to try them on cold water species.
 
I'm a mid weight fan also and have had much better luck fishing streamers for smallies and cold water trout very, very slow. I like an English fly called the Nomad that has the bead placed in the middle of the shank. A Shenk's White Minnow is another pattern I like to fish slow. A dead drift with occasional twitches or slowly swinging down and across works most of the time for me.

This does not hold when the fish are aggressive and are busting schools of minnows - then fast seems to work. In the evening/night when the fish cruise the shallows looking for minnows I strip pretty fast (or use pencil poppers). However, that isn't my bread-and-butter fishing. Also, jigging motion has it's day. Part of streamer fishing is getting the presentation of the day. However, slow is where I usually start.

Saturday I had one of my best days for smallies on the Delaware and slow was the ticket. Think like a Senko fisherman, who generally outfish the faster retreive hardware guys.
 
JeffK wrote:
I'm a mid weight fan also and have had much better luck fishing streamers for smallies and cold water trout very, very slow. I like an English fly called the Nomad that has the bead placed in the middle of the shank. A Shenk's White Minnow is another pattern I like to fish slow. A dead drift with occasional twitches or slowly swinging down and across works most of the time for me.

This does not hold when the fish are aggressive and are busting schools of minnows - then fast seems to work. In the evening/night when the fish cruise the shallows looking for minnows I strip pretty fast (or use pencil poppers). However, that isn't my bread-and-butter fishing. Also, jigging motion has it's day. Part of streamer fishing is getting the presentation of the day. However, slow is where I usually start.

Saturday I had one of my best days for smallies on the Delaware and slow was the ticket. Think like a Senko fisherman, who generally outfish the faster retreive hardware guys.

Really good post - very true. I do the exact same thing, but just the opposite way...lol.

I start out fishing aggressively - longer casts and stripping and cover a lot of water to find the aggressive fish.

If the fish aren't receptive, I switch to the low and slow techniques using smaller flies detailed above. You can't cover as much water that way, but when fish are in the neutral or negative mode, you should be able to catch them by drifting your fly right in front of their nose....hopefully, anyway.

The keys are finding the fish and finding the right fishing technique. Unfortunately many anglers focus more on the fly pattern or color - usually a distant third.
 
I guess I am getting older! Used to start fast, but slow is now more of my natural pace.

I used to walk miles of stream searching with fast stripped streamers. Didn't bring many to hand, but got a lot of flashes and follows that found fish for future outings. Run and gun streamer fishing is a great way to learn a lot about a stream.

In general I've been getting away from weighted streamers and using sinking poly leaders with short tippets and unweighted flies. There are pluses and minuses to each approach and who knows what I'll be doing next year. Hate to use weight fly fishing since fly fishing is most pleasant with floating lines and no weight IMHO. However, some days you just have to get the fly down. If I need a full sinking line then I will just pick up my spinning rod - full sinking lines take away all the grace and joy of fly fishing for me. I can deal with weighted flies and sink tips.
 
if these flies a swung on a tight line... the location of the eyes have no impact on how they swim... they are tied correctly

actually with the eyes tied mid body, it will impeed the sink abilities of the fly... and it will not get down in the current

someone mentioned circle hooks... never use them for a streamer/ fly that you intend on swinging... the octopus hook (as pictured) is best

i'd recomend offsetting the hook point as well
 
Ramcatt wrote:
if these flies a swung on a tight line... the location of the eyes have no impact on how they swim... they are tied correctly

actually with the eyes tied mid body, it will impeed the sink abilities of the fly... and it will not get down in the current

someone mentioned circle hooks... never use them for a streamer/ fly that you intend on swinging... the octopus hook (as pictured) is best

i'd recomend offsetting the hook point as well


YMMV, but Bob Clouser designed the Clouser minnow to be a minnow imitation and he ties it with the dumbell way back on the hook shank. This keeps the hook upright/level and allows the fly to glide through the water. The fly is designed to swim not sink quickly like a jig. I tie a whole bunch of flies with a bead or cone at the head, but not clousers.

I've messed with them (Clousers) quite a bit, and found tying the dumbbell back about 1/3 of the hook shank behind the eye really makes all the difference.

Here is a link to the actual pics and instructions from Bob Clouser's book: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPage?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&&mode=article&objectID=33444&catID=&subcatID=0

And below is a pic from Bob Clouser showing the position of the dumbell he uses to tie his pattern.


 

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That's all great ... If this was a discussion about clousers
But is isn't

It's a stinger style fly to be swung in current

Completely different than a stripped clouser
Both in the way that it is tied with weight placement and the way that fly is presented (both in how it is setup in the current and how it is fished)

Without that understand your suggestions will actually work against the OP and will make his flys less effective
 
That's all great ... If this was a discussion about clousers
But is isn't

It's a stinger style fly to be swung in current

Completely different than a stripped clouser
Both in the way that it is tied with weight placement and the way that fly is presented (both in how it is setup in the current and how it is fished)

Without that understand your suggestions will actually work against the OP and will make his flys less effective

The post is a response to the 2nd and 3rd posts:

only problem i see it will act as a jig and dive head first and not swim as a minnow, other than that well tied.

I get into that argument with people all the time about my clousers, they claim that I tie in my eyes too far back on the shank, and that the jigging action is more attractive to fish. all in all, it's just a matter of personal preference.

And is a follow-up to my post:

Good point. My 2 is that Clousers have a unique action when tied the way they were designed - with the dumbbell tied in well back from the hook eye. That is what makes it effective, IMO. Tied this way the fly sort of glides along like a minnow.

Tied the other way (with the dumbbell at the eye) it's no different than a fancy bucktail jig. A jig will catch fish, but a properly tied Clouser will, many times, vacuum up the fish. Again, just adding my 2.

And is a response to your post:

if these flies a swung on a tight line... the location of the eyes have no impact on how they swim... they are tied correctly

actually with the eyes tied mid body, it will impeed the sink abilities of the fly... and it will not get down in the current

I just didn't want noobies to think that tying weight near mid-shank is wrong in all cases, and I explained why that is in detail, and from personal experience both tying and fishing those flies. Further, I backed it up with a detailed tutorial with pics from the very guy that invented the fly.


As I wrote - "My 2." Here to serve.


 
back to the original fly and the original poster

I would say that the bottom fly could use some brushing on the fox... there looks to be a lot of underfur, which gives you the blocky untapered look... maybe brush out that amount and then another clump 1/2 the size also brushed

while that fly will catch fish,
maybe cleaning up the head a bit... there looks to be a lot of space of just thread wrapps and a gap behind the eyes and material
 
maybe thats why i never catch anything on a clouser ( i tie them wrong) amongst other things
 
The bottom line is those flies will work fine, especially when swinging on a tight line for steelies or cold water trout (and steelie fishing is basically cold water trout fishing). The subtle flash on the side was done well.

IMHO, weight is just half the sinking fly story. The other half is using softer and/or less material. In the spirit of full disclosure, I tie plenty of jigs so I'm not a mid weight fly guy all the time - but both styles have their place. Jigs are designed for different sinking speeds. The more weight the faster it will sink, but the less action. Shape of the weight matters too. A thin minnow head will sink faster than a round head. Streamlined designs sink faster, bulky design sink slower. You can get faster sinking speeds by using softer hair. Marabou is the softest option and craft fur is pretty soft. Fox is on the soft end, but not as soft as marabou. Bucktail is a little stiffer and squirrel tail is the stiffest of the common materials. Playing around with weight and hair will get different actions. You want to get to the depth you need with the least weight to have the most action and the least chance of hanging up on the bottom. I know jigs aren't flies, but both sides can learn from each other. A great crayfish jig can be adapted to a fly, and great streamer patterns can be adapted to jigs.

Lot of ways to skin the cat and we probably worry more about the details than the fish seem to care.
 
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