Tied by “Lucky” Leon Schnitzspahn

Background

Prior to leaving on my first club trip to Cape Cod, I met Joe Nemyo at the Fly Hatch. When asked, he suggested I bring his sand eel pattern. It is a Clouser tied with olive and white fish hair with dark rainbow Glimmer. The fly is still a winner. It had a tendency to foul, which I fixed with Softex. 

A while back, Fly Fishing in Salt Waters featured a fly called the Incorporator. This was a Clouser with a rattle. I fished this pattern in the Sandy Hook area with much success. 

The next step was to combine the two. The result was a fly that works a whole lot better than it looks. The first time I saw the fly in the water, I was afraid it would scare the fish. This fly is now a staple for the annual Cape Cod trip, and it or a variation usually accounts for some of the bigger fish. This big ugly fly has helped me catch fish, while the guys around me are not.

Materials

• Hook: Mustad 34007 size 1/0 thru 3/0
• Thread: clear mono
• Body: Flashabou Minnow Body Pearl
• Glass Fly Rattle size 4 or 5 MM
• Head: Clouser-style dumb-bell eyes
• Wing: Fish Hair Olive and White, Chartreuse and white, White, Black
• 5-minute epoxy

Instructions

Step 1

Bend the eye of the hook away from the point as shown.

Step 2 

Attach pearl Flashabou tubing behind the eye of the hook and on the opposite side from the point. Slide the rattle in and tie the tubing down just in front of the bend in the hook. Leave enough tubing to match the length of the fly. Coat the rattle with epoxy and let it set. Keep the epoxy off the tubing that extends past the hook bend.

Step 3 

Tie the dumbbell eyes on just in front of the rattle. Try to leave room in front and behind the eyes. The head of this fly becomes very crowded and you need the space to tie on the fish hair. 

Step 4 

Tie in a bunch of white fish hair and then top that with olive fish hair. Coat the head and eyes with epoxy and let it set.

Step 5

Trim the fish hair and unbraid the tube as shown.

Step 6

After you give this pattern a try. See if you can modify and improve it.

Fishing the Clicky Fly

We usually fish the fly on a sinking line. The strip is sharp single handed to make the rattle work.