The Clouser Minnow may be the easiest baitfish fly you can possibly tie. It also just flat-out catches fish. Largemouth, smallmouth, snook, bonefish, tarpon- just about anything in both freshwater and saltwater will eat a Clouser. It’s one of those essential flies that you should have in your box at all times.

Plus, the Clouser Minnow is extremely simple to tie. It only requires a couple materials and a few tying points.

In this article, we’ll walk through the steps to tie the Clouser Minnow. Follow along with the video and soon enough you’ll have a box full of Clouser’s ready for any occasion.

Clouser Minnow Materials

The Clouser Minnow only requires a few materials. The simplicity makes them both easy to tie and easy to stock your box with.

• Streamer Hook
• Dumbbell or Bead Chain Eyes
• Bucktail
• Flash (optional)

Clouser Minnow Tying Instructions

Tie in Dumbbell or Bead Chain Eyes

When you tie in your choice of eyes, it’s important to leave some space near the eye of the hook. To keep it simple, leave about ⅛ of an inch of space behind the hook eye so you’ll have room to tie in bucktail. If you wanna get fancy with it, you can measure it out by rotating your eyes and begin your tying at the end of that. After a few, you’ll begin to eyeball it!

Tie in the eyes on the top of the hook shank. This will force the fly to swim hook point up, which great for avoiding snags around structure. Use a series of X-wraps, helicopter wraps, and glue to make sure these things stay where they’re supposed to!

Tie in Bucktail (Bottom)

Counterintuitively, the color we tie on top of the shank will actually be the bottom of our fly. Since our eyes are tied on top of the hook shank, the hook point will ride up and in the vise, the top of the hook from this perspective will actually be the bottom in reality. So here’s the time to tie in our lighter color, typically white.

Measure out the bucktail so it’s about 2X the length of the hook shank. You can go a little longer here. Whatever looks good to you will probably work. 

Starting in front of the eyes, tie down that white bucktail to the hook and work your way all along the hook shank. Don’t be surprised if some stray fibers pop up here, but don’t worry. You can either tie those down or clip them with a pair of scissors. 

Tie in Bucktail (Top)

Now it’s time for our top bucktail, usually a slightly darker color than our bottom bucktail. If you have a rotary vise, flip it over. If not, you’ll probably have to take the hook out of the vise and flip it upward.

First, measure off the bucktail so it’s about the same length as your bottom material, maybe a touch longer. It’s important to get this proportion right, two obviously different length bucktails does look funky and I doubt would look edible to a fish.

Next, tie in the bucktail just in front of the eyes. We’re not gonna tie this along the hook shank, just secure it in front of the eyes and let those fibers spread out to create “shoulders” or “body” to the fly. This creates a more realistic profile that fish certainly chomp down on. 

Tie in Flash (optional)

After the bucktail is tied in, you can throw in a few strands of flash along the top. This step is optional, Clousers are still effective with or without the extra flare.

I generally add a couple strands of flash but do not like to overdo it. I haven’t found much of a difference between using flash or not, but a little does make the fly stand out a touch more and gives me a little bit more confidence in the water. 

Whip Finish

Once the bucktail and optional flash are tied in, the fly is done! Whip finish and maybe throw a drop of glue in there and you’ll be ready to fish.

Clouser Minnow Tying Tips

The Clouser Minnow is relatively easy to tie, but there are some nuances that will make the process a little more efficient:

Less is More

When it comes to Clousers, less bucktail is more. It’s tempting to want to put a couple big chunks of bucktail on this and call it a day, but in reality the fly looks and fishes much better if tied with sparse materials.

With the bucktail, use about half a pencil’s width worth of material. I’ve found that using bucktail sparsely not only is easier to tie in, but also just makes a better fly. So when tying these in, use less than you think you need until you get a feel for the amount that produces the best looking and best swimming Clousers.

Use Bucktail from the Top of the Tail

Tie the Same Color in Different Weights

If you’re just starting out, pick up a white bucktail and a chartreuse bucktail and tie flies in different sizes and weights. This is a classic color combo that is effective anywhere and the difference in weight will have a much bigger impact than the colors.

Tie several flies with very light bead chain eyes, several with small/medium dumbbell eyes, and then a couple in large dumbbell eyes. With these three weight variations, you’ll be able to cover every inch of the water column and be prepared for any depth of river.

Mix up the size of the flies as well. Clousers can be tied in anywhere from about a size 6 to 2/0. Try some with whatever you have on hand when starting out and you’ll begin to dial in the profile you’re looking for.

Don’t get caught up in tying too many different color combinations unless you’re really confident in the sizes and weights you want!

Tie a Bunch in One Sitting