Mouse Fly

[Fishidiot]

Among my favorite surface flies are mouse flies. Many bass have fallen for these rascals and I get a few trout every year on 'em too. Many of us have a had a mouse revelation at some point in our fishing careers - mine was on Big Hunting Creek many years ago when a foot long brownie I was releasing coughed up a rather large mouse. Field mice are among the most numerous large forage critters and bass and trout love 'em. Anyway, here's an example of my preferred mouse fly. Since I like flies that are realistic but don't particularly care for clipped deer hair, my mice are tied with deer hair "wing style" rather than clipped (except at the head of the mouse). The key with mice, IMO, is to ensure that they float belly down and stay on the surface - this requires a closed cell foam underbody tied in underneath the hair. Experiment with how much foam you need to float the fly and keep it to a minimum. Good luck with "mousing trout/bass " this year - the strikes can be awesome.

Fishidiot's Mouse:
-Hook: any fairly long streamer hook, needs good amount of bite and turn the front of the shank up a few degrees with pliars.
-Underbody: Closed cell foam secured with thread and Superglue
-Body (underbelly): White fur
-Body (back and sides): Deer hair tied in in clumps
-Head: Spun deer
-Ears: black razor foam
-Whiskers: black rubber bands
-Tail: craft felt re-inforced with paint

 

[Heritage-Angler]

Nice! Bet they work really good for catfish. ;-)

Best looking mouse fly I've seen. I detest spinning deer hair though. I'd rather just buy those things and let someone else deal with it.

 

[MKern]

I like it!

 

[dryflyguy]

There was a piece in the latest issue of American Angler about mouse patterns, and I thought that they looked decent. But yours has them beat IMO. Nice fly

 

[tomgamber]

best looking mouse fly I've ever seen...

 

[jerseygeorge]

Fishidiot- That is one heck of a mouse pattern. Can you explain how you use the closed cell foam? I assume you tie in the tail, then somehow use the foam, then clumps of hair / white / brown, then a spun head?

JG

 

[Maurice]

mmmmmm.....Meeces!

 

[Fishidiot]

To tie the foam underbody:
- Cut a couple strips of 1/8" foam about the shank length. Fig 1 shows this with slightly upturned shank.
- Coat the shank with some Superglue or epoxy, sandwich the shank with the two pieces of foam, and lash it down with thread as shown in Fig 2. A strong thread helps, I prefer kevlar. The glue keeps the foam from twisting around the shank. Fig 2 shows what should be adequate foam to float the fly
-Once the foam is secured, tie in the deer hair in clumps about the width of a pencil from tail to head. Be forewarned, this mouse requires a lot of hair. A typical 3x5" swatch of deer hair is good for maybe three mice. You want this mouse to float just right at the surface with most of the body under the water line like a natural mouse would. Fish it with a slow steady retrieve in calm water near shore and hold on.

The long winter has Benny, The Incredible Fly Fishing Weiner Dog laid up with cabin fever and bored out of his little weiner skull. I tried to tease him with a hookless mouse fly but he wasn't impressed and merely looked at me and said, "Dude, what do I look like, a d***n cat? Let's just go fishing already!" :-D

 

[flyfishermanj]

Fishidiot,

Thanks for sharing, will have to tie a few of them up!

JH

 

[flybop]

Very nice mouse pattern! I caught my first trout on a mouse on the Yellow Breeches many years ago just after dark. Anyone who thinks that trout do not eat mice needs to take a good look at this picture. This was taken from a web site about New Zealand fly fishing.

Last year I did experiment with a drowned mouse pattern that was tied with lead. I fished this like a big nymph along some deep banks and it did catch a few trout.

 

[jerseygeorge]

Thanks Idiot-

I fish a hole every year where the browns go crazy just as the sun is going down. We have 30-45 minutes of fun, mostly on large spinners, short heavy leaders.

I gonna tie up some of those, and hang out till dark. I betcha I catch a big one.

Thanks for the clarification and the photo!

.... and I have a black lab that has a worst case of cabing fever than I do.

JG

 

[David]

I was ready to bait some mouse traps...Nice tie!

 

[Acristickid]

How often do fish hit these? I might have seen some mice in the water but certainly not many of them. Whens the best time to fish them? Certainly summer right? Night or daytime? High or low water? What are you catching?

 

[Bruno]

I once saw a video where there was a mouse hatch. The stream ran through the middle of a field. It was late summer/ fall. There were thousands of mice around the stream and the trout were going nuts for them. I never believed that trout would eat them until I saw it.

 

[brookieaddict]

Ver realistic and a great pattern to boot thanks for sharing, my cats will go nuts.

 

[trowpa]

brookieaddict wrote:
Ver realistic and a great pattern to boot thanks for sharing, my cats will go nuts.

I'd suggest pinching the barbs before letting the cats play, but i bet they do put up a great fight

 

[ErnieBall]

very, very nice fly

 

[Fishidiot]

All,
Thanks for the many compliments.
acris,
I'll tie one of these rascals on any time of the year as mice can be active year round. For the most part this is a summer/fall bass fly for me and, yes, they work particulary well under low light conditions and at night. Trout love 'em too. They're something different that pressured fish don't see a lot. I suppose this fly should technically be categorized as a "terrestrial" but my guess is that game fish are attracted to its large size and the commotion it makes moving aross the surface and it really stirs up the predator instinct. I have a theory that stream trout are more opportunistic and inclined to strike at very large, but comparatively rare, forage opportunities like mice or frogs.

 

[flybop]

Mice patterns, for trout anyway, have basically been a low light/night pattern. A friend of mne who has been guiding on the big Horn for many years has a couple clients that he fishes with every summer. They go out at night and fish mice patterns for most of the float. I had a couple looks and swirls on a mouse last week on the Horn, but no solid takes.

I am looking forward to when the flow from the Yellowtail dam is bumped up this spring. The higher flows will swamp many of the islands and create a mouse hatch.