Munching Mouse Mayhem Begins, Letort, 6/29/14

[Night_Stalker]

I witnessed 2 large field mice cross the Letort last evening. We are talking 4-5" specimens from nose to butt. Like little toy wind up boats.

I'm going out to scope out the hiding spots of brown trout kraken and plan to feed them some evening imitation rodent snacks.

Time to experiment with foam, deer hair and weed guards. 4-foot 20-lb. mono leaders on 8-wt. Muskie sized flies. Figure out the correct "splat landing". Drop-ins from the grass banks. Practice the panicked drowned rat retrieve...

Find the only the biggest and the baddest browns in CV

Who's ready?

 

[Brownie101]

Dude, you've gotta get a GoPro and videotape some of these monstrous takes. I for one would love to see that.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

For legality reasons, be sure to do this out of the HA, if fishing at night

 

[Night_Stalker]

salvelinusfontinalis,

I have never fished the Heritage Area. I have walked it and chilled there…maybe someday. Years ago, I went there spent a good hour just taking it in. A homage. I then went to the mouth of the Letort and proceeded to catch 2 browns (21 & 22") and referred to them as Vince and Charlie!

Despite my forum name, I do not fish only at night. Small streams and night fishing is rough. You really need to have experience at the location to pull it off.

So in scouting new spots this evening, I did locate some good looking holes. I saw a vole and lots of critter holes. More importantly, I saw several beast in the water. 2 big trout and a very curious snapper that came about 20' straight to my feet.

I will keep looking and get a plan of attack.

- - -
Brownie101,
I would love to see that too. Low light and photos/video do not go well together. I will get a film crew together.

 

[govtmule]

good stuff NS....I have been meaning to do this as well

 

[Fishidiot]

Night_Stalker wrote:
Find the only the biggest and the baddest browns in CV
Who's ready?

Will be interesting to see the results. I'll tie on a mouse fly from time to time (usually to fish under low hanging branches or bridges) and fish hit the flies pretty frequently although I often don't get good hookups on trout, esp smaller ones. In my experience, bass are much more hookable on mouse flies than trout. Nevertheless, it can be surprising how aggressively trout will charge out from cover and swirl on a mouse fly. It's also surprising how fast actual mice can scurry across the surface. I think this may explain why trout move so fast to react to mouse flies: if they're familiar with seeing the "naturals"... then they're used to an aggressive response.

I agree that a weedless mouse is the ticket for CV creeks in summer - way heavy grass laying over the banks and emerging up through the water surface.

 

[Night_Stalker]

Now if I could only figure out how to wind up the rubber band powering the doggie paddling legs...I guess I will install batteries and a motor! Maybe a wind up key spring. Let it swim up current until the legs stop kicking...and then add action down stream to the bank. BOOM!

 

[krayfish2]

Just trap them from the fields. Fit the mice with a small harness and a 2/0 treble hanging down. Money. Don't remove the barbs or it may impact the success rate.

 

[Night_Stalker]

I thought about tossing the vole in yesterday to see if the brown or the snapper would get it first

 

[Night_Stalker]

My dad used to solder red copper wire onto streamer hooks...

 

[odizz17]

Struggled severely the first hour there the other night. Hooked into trees, logs, anything above or behind me, etc... Once I got settled and comfortable, things went smoother but no luck. Went to the YB after getting frustrated. Fished about a 100 yd stretch pounding the bank with the mouse and took a nice little 12-13" brown. Went back to the lower Letort, and started hitting the banks along the tall grass. Got one miss (or I may have missed haha). Wasn't ready for the take whatsoever. The outline of the swirl looked like a toilet flushed in the creek. Crazy. Small stream night fishing is a nightmare lol. At least my first attempt was... There's always next time. But tomorrow brings a nice drive north to Canada. Bring on the Esox!

 

[Night_Stalker]

odizz17,

I do not like flailing in the dark without knowledge of a pig being in the water. One must master dappling a line at a distance with minimum swinging of the rod. You still must have extreme stealth.

I believe that Jason has won the award for the smallest avatar image.

Esox on Mice...I am waiting for the pics!

 

[jdaddy]

So . . . . .??????

??????

????

??

 

[Alnitak]

I'm reading this thread with great interest as well. I fished a hole last weekend that had lots of brown trout hanging out in it. My brother-in-law and I combined for about 12 fish from it in less than an hour.

The most impressive thing happened with the first brown I caught. It was a nice 11" wild fish...and as I was working to land it, a HUGE brown that had to be 20" or more came charging out of the deep and made two swipes at my fish in an attempt to eat it, then dashed off. I want to catch that fish; maybe a mouse will be the ticket.

Jeff

 

[wildtrout2]

Alnitak wrote:

It was a nice 11" wild fish...and as I was working to land it, a HUGE brown that had to be 20" or more came charging out of the deep and made two swipes at my fish in an attempt to eat it, then dashed off.

Jeff

I had the same exact thing happen to me on the WB Fishing Creek (Sullivan) back around 2005, except it was with a BIG native. A roughly 16" brookie came from the bottom and swiped at a little one I was bringing in. Never saw him again.

 

[Night_Stalker]

You guys are making it like now I need to produce a beast on a rodent... That is almost as bad as 30+-incher.

I have backed off the trout fishing (mostly due to heat) and was keying on bass to take a break...since the water levels finally came down to wadible levels.

I hope to return to scouting mode...and when I have concrete sightings...the mice will start to fly.

Then I plan to catch the fish that would eat that little 20"er!

 

[Night_Stalker]

Update: 7/13/14

With the Sun going behind clouds early afternoon, I decided to see how the big'ens behaved. It did not stay cloudy…sun was in and out…I was getting cooked in the humid 90 degree weather.

I saw two large fish near a large woodpile and decided to see if I could get a reaction. It would be impossible to land a fish from the many submerged logs if the fish choose to run into them (even with a 20lb mono leader).

I had the shown newly tied streamer on and worked it to the back of the deep hole where the visible fish where. Spooked another large fish from the deepest part of the hole in the process. The targeted fish did not budge.

Decided to try a weedless mouse (store bought) and managed to eventually get the lead fish to move towards the mouse then do a 180 showing me its 2 foot plus length and sparse dot pattern.

I saw several other nice large fish. One male colored hook jaw that was around 20".

The dark fish was in the same spot I saw it before. I assume that the fish could be old and could be at the end of its life 18-20". Interestingly there was a normally colored same size fish immediately to the right of this fish.

I am wondering if the browns start to pair up for spawning in the fall at this time of the summer…

I did see a number of 1.5" fish that gave me the impression of being browns.

I am working out the landscape and casting angles for fishing in the dark…soon they will be on the hook!

 

[Fishidiot]

Some cool trout hunting going on here. My money says you'll nail one of those guys after dark pretty soon. No pressure. :lol:

 

[Night_Stalker]

It was perfect mousing weather to experiment tonight after the flash flooding. The Letort went up around a foot and was the perfect setting for a Sci-Fi Super Anaconda Movie. Tall grass/weed and water everywhere…every log looked like a giant snake!

One 15"er came to play with a streamer. Missed another. The Letort was blown out and muddy.

 

[fly_flinger]

Night_Stalker wrote:
The Letort was blown out and muddy.

I love when those are the conditions of that stream. Makes it more like a normal stream.