For many saltwater fly fishers, the Clouser Minnow is king. It catches just about everything, is versatile, effective and also easy to tie. When your fly takes a header into a barnacled beach rock or gets snapped off on the big mystery salmonid that snatched it up and tried to run a quarter mile over the edge of a drop off, it's nice knowing you didn't labor over tying the pattern for the better part of your evening. Clousers can been adapted to mimic just about any baitfish species and with a few modifications, as you see here, make a decent chum fry imitation useful in both saltwater and rivers.
For beaches I really prefer using bead chain eyes on the Clouser Chum Fry over the heavier brass Pseudo Eyes I typically use. Chum fry tend to travel higher in the water column and also often very near the shore in shallow water where a heavy pattern just gets snagged up in the rocks. While I like the version below quite a bit, I also sometimes substitute natural red fox squirrel or olive dyed red fox squirrel for the olive bucktail. Because the squirrel has a natural barring to it, adding the parr marks with a black sharpie isn't so necessary.
Clouser Chum Fry Recipe:
Hook: Daiichi 2546 #8
Thread: 140 Denier White Ultra Thread
Eyes: Small Silver Bead Chain
Top Wing: White Bucktail
Gills: 70 Denier Red Ultra Thread
Bottom Wing: Olive Bucktail barred with black sharpie
Flash: Pearl Krystal Flash
Confluence Beer Pairing: This month's recommended beer is 10 Barrel Brewing's Out of Office. When the weather starts getting nice and the days warm up, a cool and refreshing Pilsner really hits the spot. When you dig the bitter hop taste of an IPA but want something a little lighter on the palette, this is your beer. Out of Office is a hoppy pilsner, combining the best of both worlds with a splash of bitterness in that crisp clean pilsner experience. The beer name serves as a healthy reminder for all of us to spend a little time "out of office" and enjoy life on the water.