September FOTM - The Half & Half

[Stephen Bradbury]

September’s fly of the month is the Clouseiver or Half & Half. This fly as its name suggests is a combination of the Clouser and Deceiver fly patterns and is one of the most popular deep water, big fish flies around. As with the Clouser and the Deceiver an infinite number of fish species can be caught on this fly, but species most commonly targeted with the Clouseiver are Pink snapper, Mulloway, Coral trout, most Emperor species, Giant, Brassy & Golden Trevally, Queenfish, Cobia, most Mackerel species, Samson fish, Yellow Tailed Kingfish, desirable Cod species etc etc. Often tied in all white there are many colour and material variations out there these days, some use synthetic wing materials or polar chenille under the wing to represent bleeding gills etc, but essentially the Clouseiver it is a weighted bait fish fly with a saddle hackle tail for plenty of natural movement, a small amount of flash and a collar of bucktail to give it profile and stop the tail feathers from fowling around the hook. A large 4/0 white Clouseiver is my first choice fly for Pink Snapper and most deep reef flyfishing and can also be deadly fished in a burley trail, this fly deserves a place in everyone’s fly box.
Recipe: in order of tying.
Hook – size 2/0# - 6/0# Gamakatsu SL12S or similar (4/0 hook most common).
Thread – Flat waxed 210 denier, white or other chosen colour.
Eyes/Weight – XL size ibalz, real eyes or other chosen brass dumbbell eyes or tungsten dumbbells.
Tail – 3 to 4 pairs (one each side of the hook shank) of white saddle hackles approx 2.5 x the hook length, tied in at the end of the hook shank (start of bend). The top pair can be of a different colour or even grizzly hackles if you desire.
Flash – 2 to 4 strands each side of the tail of flashabou pearl or silver, or lateral scale or sparkle flash.
You can add some lead wire around the hook shank for extra weight if desired at this stage.
You can also wrap some red UV polar chenille around the hook shank at this stage to represent internal bleeding gills.
Under wing – 1 x bunch of white bucktail (or tapered gamechange fibre) tied in on the same side as the eyes (bottom of hook shank) and spread (pushed around hook shank with a little fingernail pressure) slightly around the hook shank. The wing material should extend back at least 1/3 (preferably about ½) of the length of the tail saddle hackles.
Over wing – 1 x bunch of bucktail (or tapered gamechange fibre) in white or chosen colour tied in on top just behind the hook eye (clouser wing style) of the same length as the under wing.
Whip finish thread, cut and seal/glue the thread finish well with chosen product.

Tie fly onto 40 – 60lb fluorocarbon bite tippet with lefty’s loop knot to allow for maximum movement or addition of a ball sinker if fishing situation requires or wire if needed for the target species. Usually retrieved using large, long single strips or fast with double overhanded strip, get some in your box now.

[Stephen Bradbury]

Some more pics