Mouse fly on Penns Creek

[mkile]

I have been reading about mouse flies lately. Penns Creek seems like a good place to throw the mouse around. It has large brown trout and plenty of grassy banks for mice to fall from.

Has anyone had luck fishing with a mouse fly on Penns?

 

[jifigz]

I have not fished them there but it will work..it will work on nearly any stream that's big enough for you to cast and strip them across the surface. I bet a brown 10" would try to eat one..you don't need to do it where there are big fish....but they help.

 

[tabasco_joe]

You might also land a decent smallie. Especially Cherry Run and south.

 

[mt_flyfisher]

I never tried fishing a mouse on Penns, but I did fish them on Spring Creek when I was a student at Penns Creek many years ago, so I’d think they’d also work on Penns at the right time and place.

The first time I fished a mouse pattern on Spring Creek I was amazed at the number of large trout I caught on it. A few days later, fishing the same section, I still caught quite a few large fish, but fewer than the first time. The third time I caught fewer fish still. I gave up fishing it there a short time after that. I suspected that no one had fished a big mouse pattern on that section of the stream much, if at all, before me, and those fish just smartened up to it after falling for my fly a time or two. However, I think it’s always worth a try, especially when there are lots of mice in the area.

A few years ago I talked to a local guide on the Yellowstone River in Montana who guided in Paradise Valley where I spent the entire summer for some 18 years. He fished mice on the Yellowstone at night. I promptly bought a dozen mice patterns, and planned to fish them there at night too. Our place was only 20 feet or so from the river, it was an excellent fishing spot that held lots of big trout, and there were many mice (too many mice actually) all around there. But you know, I never got around to doing that, and I doubt that those fish would have rarely, if ever, have been fished over by someone using a mouse pattern. Who ever thinks of going to Montana to fish a mouse pattern anyway?

 

[Mike]

You might do just as well with a frog pattern or lure. The big trout in Laurel Run Reservoir, Mifflin Co., had frogs in their stomachs yrs ago.

 

[JeffP]

I always wondered about that reservoir. Mike, I'm assuming it's been surveyed based on your comment. What did it show?

 

[afishinado]

Does any think the fish can tell the difference between a mouse and a frog pattern?

In the dark, just cast something large and squiggly in the water, move it erratically....and hang on!

 

[Dave_W]

JeffP wrote:
I always wondered about that reservoir. Mike, I'm assuming it's been surveyed based on your comment. What did it show?

I'm sure there are many folks interested in Laurel Run due to seeing it during their travels. it would be best to start a new thread under Locations to discuss this issue.

 

[Dave_W]

afishinado wrote:
In the dark, just cast something large and squiggly in the water, move it erratically....and hang on!

Agree, it's the night fishing, not the pattern.

 

[Dave_W]

With that said, I'm an avid "mouser" and use the flies pretty frequently and have had success with them, both day and night. I have found mice in the stomachs of trout (not many, crayfish on the other hand, are common; never found a frog). A big ole mouse that floats can get back into some tight spots under cover that a sinking streamer can't.

Bass and sunfish really love 'em.

If I were hitting a stream like Penns, I'd focus on the lower sections where it transitions from trout to WW species. Now is prime time.

Here's my mouse fly in action. . .

 

[salmonoid]

afishinado wrote:


Does any think the fish can tell the difference between a mouse and a frog pattern?

In the dark, just cast something large and squiggly in the water, move it erratically....and hang on!

Only those that believe that a fish looks at a bug and identifies it with the proper Latin name before deciding to consume it, or not....

At night, fish key on movement to identify food. They don't really care what the food is (assuming it is not a predator, or something like a beaver, which is too big for even the biggest brown I ever saw to eat..). But sometimes the fish are puzzling, in what they key on.

Use anything that displaces water - mouse, gurgler, frog, even a hopper. I've caught brooks and browns down to 7" on streams at night. They aren't exactly what I was targeting, but they are good for a laugh out loud moment in the middle of the night.

I remember one evening I was fishing a small stream at night. There must have been a dozen or more toads out in the one pool I was fishing, making a racket and trying to find mates. I was fairly certain it was going to be a bust, with all the toads already swimming around the pool. But I managed three fish that night, the biggest being about 18". And I don't remember hearing any splashes of trout trying to take toads either. They must have come to an agreement. Or maybe toads taste bad?

I do think fish will eventually turn off to certain patterns. Usually, if fish are feeding at night, you can expect some action right away. But then it dies off. And if you fish the same place consecutive nights, your chances will probably go down. However, not all fish feed all the time, so I'll sometimes go back and sit by the fire for an hour and then try again. Or try to wake up at 3AM to see if anything is hungry. I once talked to a guy who owned some land on Hammer Creek. His dad was a member of a fishing club somewhere there years back and his dad had the theory that the really big fish only ate every three days. I don't know if there is any validity to that theory or not, but if there is a shard of truth to it, I definitely want to encounter them on day 3.

As far as Penns, I've only fished it one time at night, when my brother and I were en route to points north. We stayed at Poe Paddy and the water was too warm during the day for decent fishing. At dusk, the water started to boil, but nothing was interested in a mouse. I did spear a fish with a Deceiver but that outing is hardly indicative of what Penns could produce at night..

 

[Slatyfork]

About once a summer, I read threads like this and read articles, then get amped up for mouse fishing... I’ve gotten out a couple times recently... and I have to admit I’ve never gotten a bump. Maybe I should stay out longer. After an hour or two casting blindly in the dark, a little sleep suddenly seems like a great idea. Maybe it would be more fun with a buddy but I usually end up fishing alone.

Now, I used to throw gurglers at night on Cape Cod for schoolie stripers off breakwaters, and the action was fast and furious. Really fun.

 

[jifigz]

JeffP wrote:
I always wondered about that reservoir. Mike, I'm assuming it's been surveyed based on your comment. What did it show?

It gets brown trout fingerlings (or at least it used to.) It is also open to fishing I believe. Seems like more work than it is worth.

 

[skybay]

Post some images of mouse pattern was productive for you

 

[salmonoid]

Slatyfork wrote:
About once a summer, I read threads like this and read articles, then get amped up for mouse fishing... I’ve gotten out a couple times recently... and I have to admit I’ve never gotten a bump. Maybe I should stay out longer. After an hour or two casting blindly in the dark, a little sleep suddenly seems like a great idea. Maybe it would be more fun with a buddy but I usually end up fishing alone.

Now, I used to throw gurglers at night on Cape Cod for schoolie stripers off breakwaters, and the action was fast and furious. Really fun.

It does require a commitment, and like most things angling, there's not a given return on your time investment, meaning it's not a 100% guarantee recipe for catching trout. I work it into my backpacking trips, because I plan to camp at locations I know have big fish in them. But I have plenty of times where I don't catch any fish. Trout may take mice, but there's no guarantee they will take mice; it's not a magic fly or fishing method. I spent a really frustrating set of Labor Day evenings on a stream last year, which yielded zero fish. But when I'd hit the stream with a light, the fish were there, including one that must have gone 24". It's just like fishing during the day when fish are rising but won't take whatever you throw at them. Heck one night, I threw about six different patterns in a hole and produced zero hits (pic below). The frustrating thing was the night before, a huge fish surfaced and jumped out of the water at dusk, chasing a minnow I think (more like a porpoise surfacing at the beach than jumping out of the water). So I knew fish were in there. I caught a couple the night before, even while a bunch of yahoos were camped across the stream from me, setting off fireworks that spit into the stream. The second night, when I took the skunk, I eventually found the cause of my zero strikes - a beaver was swimming around the pool.

I often tell my wife that when I go backpacking, but nightfish, I never end up rested, because I lose sleep by staying up late, or waking up in the middle of the night. But, it's all offset by the times where I have latched onto a memorable trout, and currently, it's worth the loss of sleep. Getting a few strikes goes a long way towards keeping my interest.

L to R, night flies:
Bubblicious, [non-mouse], Harvey Pusher, Polks Rat, Mr. Hanky, Morrish Mouse

Heading out next week, should get four nights on at least two different streams, including the one I fished the six above flies on.

My progression, over the years, for surface night flies has been:

Hopper (took my first night fish on this, 21" brown, on a 7ft, 6pc 3wt), a realistic mouse I tied under the tutelage of Ed Kraft (which I lost in a very brown looking tree in NC PA), Blair Mouse Project (in the mouth of the brookie above - got a good deal on a bunch of them from Sierra Trading Post), and then just a bunch of different patterns, mostly to experiment with what works better. A stinger hook gives you twice the chance of a hookup and seems to result in less deep hooking.

 

[Slatyfork]

Salmonid, thanks for the advice... I'm sure I'll go back later this summer when the trout are in nocturnal mode. Even though I feel like a swallowed half the bugs on the east coast when I turned on my head lamp to get some grass off the fly.

This last mousing session, I went to a deep hole (that tapers out into a long stretch of almost-still water) where I had lost a large fish the week before that I never saw, on a sculpin pattern. Felt like a fish you'd weigh in pounds--I guess it could have been foul-hooked, but anyway... I threw big streamers into dusk, caught one 15" brown and then had a larger fish chase the streamer to my feet, let the water "rest" a bit as things got dark, then worked it with that same Mr Hanky pattern you have above. Nice wake. I definitely like the way that fly works, much better than the traditional deer hair mouse. Moorish Mouse looks great too.

Have you ever fished a Dahlberg Diver style mouse-fly? (Does that Bubbalicious dive?) I have a few in my box that have been effective on farm pond bass in the bullfrog patterns as well as the mouse, but the hook has a pretty big gap, so I haven't tried it on trout. I love the action though.