Bob Clouser's Clouser Minnow is perhaps the most widely recognized baitfish imitation in the fly tying world. It catches everything from bass to tarpon, works in freshwater and saltwater and can be tied in any imaginable color combination to suggest a variety of different forage fish. While the original Clouser Minnow probably needs no introduction, the stinger variation is probably less familiar to a lot of people and, I think, somewhat unique to some of our fisheries here in the Northwest. Piscivorous fish tend to attack and eat their prey head first, so the upfront hook placement on Clousers and other baitfish mimicking streamers makes a lot of sense, but the trailing hook offers several advantages for those of us fishing the beaches of Puget Sound for migrating salmon in the late summer and fall.
Beach fishing for coho salmon is a casting-intensive endeavor. You spend the better part of a decent tide change trying to land your fly as far out into the salmon traveling lanes as possible and employ a two-handed strip to rapidly bring it back in. Sometimes a series of false casts to get your fly out into the zone takes longer than actually retrieving it back to your rod tip. All this casting provides ample opportunity for the wing of the fly to foul around the hook point, as tends to happen occasionally with traditional Clousers. Substitute the usual stiffer bucktail dressing for a softer, more supple material like Craft Fur and the fouling problem amplifies significantly. The trailing hook eliminates this problem entirely.
There is another advantage to fishing a stinger-style fly for migrating coho in saltwater. As salmon push ever closer to their natal rivers their feeding instincts sometimes slow to a crawl. If the herring and sandlance are abundant out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, salmon may feed little or not at all by the time they round the bend into the Sound. This lackluster feeding behavior leads to salmon nipping at the back of your fly as you retrieve it back. The trailing hook helps to stick these fish where a more hook forward placement may lead to fewer hook ups.
You can certainly get as fancy as you'd like at the tying bench in dreaming up any number of wild, salmon attracting color combinations, but I tend to fish the Craft Fur Stinger Clouser in just three colors. The chartreuse and white version featured here is hands down my favorite and most productive color, but a pink and white or pink and chartreuse version work very well too, particularly in odd numbered years when pink salmon returns overlap with the coho season.
Craft Fur Stinger Clouser Recipe:
Front hook: #2 Daiichi 2546
Thread: 140 Denier White Ultra Thread
Trailing Hook: #2 AquaTalon Swing Hook
Connection: #20 or #25 Maxima Ultragreen
Eyes: Medium Pearl Painted Lead Eyes
Tail: White Craft Fur
Body: Flat Pearl Diamond Braid
Flash: UV Krystal Flash & Lateral Scale
Wing: Chartreuse Craft Fur & Peacock Angel Hair