Background
A number of years ago we had a big fish kill on the West Fork of the White River from Anderson all the way down to Broadripple. I had been fishing this area pretty heavy for a while and having great success. There were a couple of Clouser Deep Minnow patterns that consistently worked well all along this water. After the fish kill I ventured out to other waters more often, particularly Sugar Creek, but had limited success on the flies I had been using here on the White. I often went fishing with a friend of mine who was a spin fisherman and he caught many smallies on any given day with some in the 17 – 19 inch range so I knew there were plenty of fish in the water.
After one particular frustrating day I decided to call Bob Clouser to get some advice on patterns and colors. Since there were fish in the water his primary suggestion was that I needed to adjust the colors of my flies from what I had success with on other waters. In the course of the conversation, as any good fly shop salesman should, Bob mentioned that he had a new fly they had been "having great success with". It was the Clouser Darter and being grateful for the time he took talking with me I ordered a dozen of his flies including four of the purple and olive darters.
When they arrived I put two aside as patterns and took the remaining two out to Sugar Creek. By the end of the day I had caught over 100 fish on this one fly. Smallies, panfish, carp, rockbass, largemouth, suckers and chubs all attacked this fly. So, as soon as I got home I tied up about two dozen of these flies and then began fishing this fly around various waters in central Indiana with "great success". Since that time the purple and olive Clouser Darter has become a "Goto" fly on any water in the Midwest. I have even tied this in tan shades and caught bonefish in Mexico on this pattern. This is definitely one fly you should have with you on any outing.
Materials
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Hook:
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Thread:
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Tail:
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Belly:
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Flash:
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Back:
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Eyes:
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Instructions
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1)The first step is to place the hook in the vise. I have used a Mustad 3366 #4 hook for the instructions on this page.
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2) The next step is to place a small bump of thread half way down the hook shank. Throughout the instructions you will use the entire hook length as a measurement for materials. The eyes need to be 1/3 the length of the hook from in front of the hook eye. I have found if I place a bump of thread half way down the shank and tie in the eyes just in front of the bump they are in the correct position.
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3) Next tie in the dumbbell eyes using a figure eight pattern just in front of the bump of thread. The eyes in these photos are large eyes. For a size four hook I would normally use just medium eyes but the large eyes photograph better for these instructions.
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4) Once the eyes are secured you will cut off a small clump of purple calf tail, about half a pencil diameter. You will remove the short hairs as well as any underfur from the clump before tying it in. Measure the hair to one hook length (front of the eye to back of the bend), cut off the excess and tie this in right behind the dumbbell eyes. Wrap the clump of hair down on the hook shank all the way back to about the point of the hook.
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5) With the purple calf tail tied in bring your thread in front of the dumbbell eyes about half way between the eyes and the eye of the hook.
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6) Now clip a small clump of olive calf tail, about the same size as the purple. Clean it and measure it one hook length long and cut off the excess. Tie in the butt ends of the hair right behind the hook eye.
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7) You'll want to attach the olive calf tail just behind the hook eye and wrap slightly back to the dumbbell eyes. You do not want to wrap the hairs down snug up against the dumbbell eyes.
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8) Holding the olive calf tail in you material hand, bring your thread under the dumbbell eyes and wrap four or five times around the olive calf tail behind the dumbbell eyes. Do not put to many excessive wraps of thread behind the dumbbell eyes. Also make certain the hair stays on top of the shank and does not get wrapped around the shank.
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9) With the olive calf tail secured behind the dumbbell press either your thumbnail or the outside edge of your scissors along the olive calf tail hair to spread it from on top of the hook shank to the sides of the hook shank as well.
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10) Bring your thread back in front of the dumbbell eyes half way between the dumbbell eyes and the hook eye.
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11) Turn the fly over. Remember this is how the fly will be fished in the water. The extra weight of the dumbbell eyes cause the fly to ride hook point up. So, what you have been tying in is the tail and the belly of the fly.
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12) Select four to six strands of red Krystal flash or Flash Accent. Tie these in between the front of the dumbbell eyes and the hook eye.
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13) Select four to six strands of red Flashabou and tie these in between the front of the dumbbell eyes and the hook eye.
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14) Select another clump of olive calf tail, a little thicker than what you used on the belly of the fly, clean it and measure it to one hook length long. Cut off the excess and tie this in just behind the eye of the hook.
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15) With the olive calf tail tied in for the back you need to put enough thread wraps on to cover up any butt ends of hair but not so much that you build up too big a head. Whip finish and clip off you thread.
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16) Trim the Flashabou and Krystal flash so that they extend about 3/8th to 1/2 inch behind the purple calf tail. For extra effect, trim each piece to a little bit different length. This will give the tail area a little extra flash when fished.
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17) Here is the finished fly as it will swim in the water. As an optional step to add more durability to the fly you can coat the dumbbell eyes, calf tail between the dumbbell eyes and thread in front of the dumbbell eyes with epoxy. This will help preserve the eyes some as well as the hair between the dumbbell eyes.
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Note: it really is purple calf tail and not blue, as it looks in the photos. Our staff photographer is working on these skills.
Once you tie one or two of these flies up you will see how easy they are to produce. I recommend you have at least six of these in your box if not ten or twelve. This way you can fish this through rocks and wood and if you get hung up just break it off and tie on another. The more aggressive you are at fishing this fly around structure the better your success will be.
If you have any questions about tying this pattern do not hesitate to send us an email or give us a call at the shop. We will be glad to help. You can purchase any of the materials for this fly online. Simply click on the material in the recipe above and you can then add the item to your cart.
If there is one thing we fly tiers are guilty of is always being distracted by shiny new things. Be it a new material, a new pattern, or a new style of fly it does not matter… we get bored with the same old thing.
