Half and Half Clouser Step By Step Pattern | Steelie Bros Fly Company
This pattern is a great way to amp up your clouser game, a mix between a deceiver pattern and a clouser the half and half is great for bass, stripers, pike, and a variety of saltwater species.
Materials needed:
Hook: 2/0 stainless steel hook ( you can use any hook size you just have to scale the pattern based on the hook)
Thread: 6/0 UNI thread this is my favorite thread to tie with great strength with not so much bulk
Eyes: Painted lead eyes (for this pattern we are using the large eyes)
Tail: Saddle hackles and/or grizzly feathers, Matching crystal flash
Body: SLF/Ice Dub, More crystal flash or scale flash
Wing/ Under Body: Buck Tail ( lighter color for the belly and contrasting dark color for the wing)
Step 1: Start thread behind eye of hook use the lead barbell eye as a gauge for its tie in spot
Step 2: Tie in the Painted lead eyes on top of the hook using figure 8 wraps and then circling under and around the eyes to secure the figure 8 wraps. Tying the eyes on top of the hook means that the fly will swim hook point up, which means the top of the hook will be the belly of the fly.
Step 3: Wrap back to the bend of the hook. Then tie in a clump of your selected flash in this case I am using an angel hair flash in a perch coloration.
Step 4: Take the tag end of the flash and fold it over and tie it in to double up the amount of flash.
Step 5: Select two matching saddle hackles that are very webby. Tie them in on the side of the hook with their natural curve curving out from the hook. The length that you tie these feathers in at will determine the overall length of the fly.
Step 6: Select either two more matching saddle hackles or two matching grizzly hackles. Tie these in at the same spot that you tied in the previous two feathers. But tie these so that the natural curve of the feathers bends in towards the hook.
Step 7: After trimming the tag ends of the feathers and securing them in. loosely dub in a ball of ice dub
Step 8: Wrap the thread forward to just in front of the lead eyes. Then Trim a pencil sized clump of white buck tail.
Step 9: Grab the buck tail from the tips and slide your other hand down the hair to remove any unwanted short hairs. Then grab the base of the hair and remove any extra long hairs that look out of place. You will be left with a stack of fairly uniform hair that doesn't have a lot of bulk.
Step 10: Take the deer hair and tie it in directly in front of your lead eyes. Take 5-6 wraps in the same spot. You want to make sure that the hair is about twice as long as the hook shank or midway back on the tail feathers.
Step 11: Before trimming the tag ends of the deer hair, Hold the deer hair by its tips and wrap back over it until the point at which you tied in the ice dub ball. Remember when wrapping across the lead eyes always wrap underneath them if you wrap on top of them you will see the thread wraps across the deer hair head on the lead eyes.
Step 12: With your thread still back at the ice dub ball, grab the tag ends of the buck tail and hold them up, take a sharp pair of scissors and slide them in as close to the tie in spot as you can and trim the tag ends.
Step 13: Advance your thread to just behind the lead eyes, cut 3-4 pieces of crystal flash at about 4-5" in length (in this case I am using a gold crystal flash). Tie them in with 3-4 wraps on the near side of the hook in the midpoint of the flash.
Step 14: Take the other half of the flash and fold it under the hook and back on the far side of the hook using 4-5 wraps to secure it in.
Step 15: Again wrap forward to just in front of the lead eyes making sure to wrap under the lead eyes and not over. Cut a smaller chunk of white buck tail and again remove the unwanted hairs.
Step 16: Tie this clump in on top again with 5-6 wraps the length of this buck tail should be about half way up the first clump you tied in.
Step 17: Holding the tips of the buck tail and tie back to right behind the lead eyes secure the hair there with 5-6 more wraps. Then trim the tag ends of the buck tail and secure them in until a smooth head is formed.
Step 18: Again wrap the thread to just in front of the lead eyes. Then trim a pencil sized clump of the darker buck tail (in this case we are using olive). You will want to trim this clump from the upper end of the buck tail as these hair fibers will be the softest and will not flare out when tied in.
Step 19: Remove all of the unwanted extra short and extra long hairs. Take the clump and slide it under the hook so that it is spilt in half by the hook shank. Line the hairs up to the same length as the longest white buck tail.
Step 20: Using 5-6 wraps directly in the same spot to secure the buck tail on the bottom of the hook. Again hold the tag ends and trim them as close to the tie in spot as possible.
Step 21: Completely secure the head of the fly making a smooth tapered head, whip finish and trim the thread. Use sealant to coat the head as well as the belly where you wrapped the head.
This pattern can be done in a multitude of colors depending on what species you are going after. Here are a few other color combos we like to tie.
Olive over white is a great pattern for bass, stripers and even trout
Pink over White is a great combo for bass, pike, stripers, redfish, and many other saltwater species
Two Variations of Grey over white, this color combo works amazingly anywhere where there are mullet. A favorite snack of both redfish and tarpon.
Other color combos to try are purple over black, chartreuses over white, and olive over orange