Jump to content

Clouser colors for largemouth


Recommended Posts

Well, being currently unemployed has it's upside......gives me more time to get on the water! ;)

 

One of my favorite "quick fixes" is the Heartland Community College pond here in Normal. I live about 4 blocks south of it, so it offers me a chance to do a little fishing when I don't have all day. For those of you that don't know, the pond is part of the college's property & is monitored by one or more of the school's departments (most likely biology). It also has "Please practice catch & release" signs posted all around it. Some of the kids from the neighboring trailer court take bluegills & the like from it, but for the most part it is a catch & release fishery. Needless to say, the largemouth have grown to impressive sizes!

 

Early in the season it can be fished with Clousers & such before the summer moss & weed growth make sub-surface fishing almost impossible. I've been experimenting with color combos the last 2 weeks & have found the best luck on a olive-over-yellow craft fur Clouser. I've gone fishless for over an hour until I switch to this color combo & then WHAM! I never knew largemouth to be this fickle over colors.

 

Anybody else run into picky largemouth, and what are your best color combos?

 

Brian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest rich mc

never heard of an olive over yellow, but if it works dont change.i like a good old fashioned whistler white n grizzley with a red hackle head[ see hot flies forum on danblanton.com] if you tye i woulddo some in olive over yellow! rich

Link to comment
Share on other sites

never heard of an olive over yellow, but if it works dont change.i like a good old fashioned whistler white n grizzley with a red hackle head[ see hot flies forum on danblanton.com] if you tye i woulddo some in olive over yellow! rich

Rich

The way lmb like plastic worms I think your worm ties would be better than clousers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I've been tying a series of clousers using the following combinations:

Bucktail:

Yellow over white - yellow or gold flashabou and yellow/black lead eyes

Gray over white - yellow and black lead eyes - pearl Krystal flash

Purple over white - red and black lead eyes - purple flashabou

Dark Olive, light olive over white - yellow and white lead eyes - red flashabou

Brown, pale olive, over white - black and red lead eyes - peacock crystal flash

Dark blue, pale blue over white - white lead eyes and pearl krystal flash

All black

All white

Keep the bucktail sparse, very sparse. Use three or four strands of flashabou or crystal flash and stagger cut it so that it's not all the same length but cut it so that it's a bit longer than your bucktail.

Favorite hook is the BLN Mustad hooks. Their series of bass hooks are quite good. I tie them in sizes from size 4 to 0/2.

 

Also tie M&M Clousers in size 6 and 4's.

Bead chain eye.

Pink wing - marabou

White belly

Pearl flash.

 

And finally, there's the Arctic Fox ones.

I do them in white and purple and white and olive with red lead eyes.

These are usually tied on size 10's and 8's and usually, if I've got a pack of them laying around, on curved shank hooks. The action of the fox is terrific, but they're kind of fragile.

 

But as always, these flies look best if tied sparse. Too much stuff stops the action. Less is better.

 

Hope this helps.

When fishing clousers do a set of short strip-strip-strip. And then with your stripping hand, put your thumb on the line and when you strip back, give it a little jerk as you pull back. It gives the fly a quick up and then fall. Usually the bass will hit it on the fall.

 

You might also try some thunder creek patterns for minnows as well as a smartt minnow. It's a craft fur minnow that casts easy, has good action and is not too much of a pain to cast.

 

I've found that if you use an intermediate line with a five foot leader, clouser minnows get down there. And I usually fish them along the weed edges or pull then quickly across the tops of submerged weed beds.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...