Hook_Jaw
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Just curious to hear people's thoughts on this your fishing stories on it or any info about it. Im going to make a run at it this year just wanna hear your thoughts on it.
Just curious to hear people's thoughts on this your fishing stories on it or any info about it. Im going to make a run at it this year just wanna hear your thoughts on it.
Dave_W
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Hook_Jaw
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Thanks Dave
Dave_W
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You're welcome.
Regardless or pattern or style, I'll reiterate my points in the previous thread: keep you flies on the smaller side and pay careful attention to hook design as mouse flies elicit a lot of strikes but often result in missed hook-ups.
At night time (as with conventional surface lures) when you hear a strike, don't set the hook until you feel the weight of the fish. Also, this is no game for skinny 2X tippet. I use 15lb test line.
Hook_Jaw
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I have my mouse patterns tied up now just going to have to get out and try it. I know some spots I think it will work I know the holes well and have fished them in the dark before.
BrookieChaser
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Fallfish like mice.
T
Toofish
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I love the idea of fishing a mouse pattern but have never got anything with it. I will fish it close to the bank after dark but nothing. I do have problems keeping the hook point down, must be the pattern. Thanks
Sean
Sean
Hook_Jaw
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Have friends that have done really well and some that haven't. Ive fished many times after dark not with mice with little luck.
salmonoid
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Fishing mice at night is a lot of fun. It is probably not the most productive pattern to use at night in Pennsylvania, but I still end up fishing mice more than anything else, because I like to sight fish and can do that at night with a surface pattern that is large enough to see and enough ambient moon or star light.
I'll echo what others have said and add a few things they may have not:
Use heavy tippet - 2X or larger. I usually carry a 0X and 2X and have some even larger diameter stuff somewhere.
Don't set the hook on the first splash. I swear sometimes the fish are first trying to drown their prey before eating it, so let them come back for it. I had a most awesome experience on Spring Creek this past year. I was fishing a pool and had worked to the tail. There was pretty decent moonlight but I was crouched behind some dead weed. I dropped my mouse into the tailout right by the bank and was immediately startled when a huge wake shot out from the bank and took a gentle nip at my mouse. Adrenaline got the better of me and I tried to set the hook and missed, but it was a soft hook set and the mouse only moved about a foot; I put my head down and was cursing myself for not paying attention, because it was a huge fish and a split second later when I looked up, I saw the fish circling the whole way around the mouse and I instinctively jerked the line, before the fish struck. He came the whole way over to the weeds by the bank - I was out of retrieve space but he splashed at it one more time before he figured out something was amiss. Mice tend to produce a fair number of short strikes too.
Little fish like mice too. Or at least they will try to take them. I think I have mice to size 2, but fish them anywhere from sizes 2-8. Generally, the smaller the hook size, the better chance you have of hooking up with the little guys.
Browns are not the only trout that like mice at night in PA. Brookies will take them too.
Don't be afraid to try other patterns - small gurglers are a great pattern and I started out using hoppers.
Think about the way a mouse would swim and mimic your retrieve accordingly. Mice don't have a motor, so a slow but steady retrieve is good. You want to make a wake but not retrieve too rapidly. You can interject a pause at times - think strip, strip, strip, pause, strip, strip, strip, strip, pause, and then often WHAM.
Mice patterns I've used - started out with a deer hair mouse I tied myself, then used a pattern called Mighty Mouse (looks like a mouse, but I've only ever caught a steelhead on it, during the day), then tried and have been using the Blair Mouse Project pattern. I'm going to try out the Morrish Mouse this year, but I have the highest hopes for a pattern I just stumbled on called Mr. Hankey, which is kind of a cross between a zonker and a gurgler, but with one unique feature I've not see in other mice flies - it has an upturned stinger hook, and I think that will help with short strikes. I've also fished a Polk's Rat, but never caught anything with it.
Do your homework during the day - if at all possible, locate a big fish. And know the stream. There are few streams that I will wade at night but it's helpful to locate where the boulders and trees and overhanging limbs are. And don't think that the exact spot you see a fish during the day is where it will feed at night. You might find they're feeding in places you wouldn't normally see them during the day.
I'll echo what others have said and add a few things they may have not:
Use heavy tippet - 2X or larger. I usually carry a 0X and 2X and have some even larger diameter stuff somewhere.
Don't set the hook on the first splash. I swear sometimes the fish are first trying to drown their prey before eating it, so let them come back for it. I had a most awesome experience on Spring Creek this past year. I was fishing a pool and had worked to the tail. There was pretty decent moonlight but I was crouched behind some dead weed. I dropped my mouse into the tailout right by the bank and was immediately startled when a huge wake shot out from the bank and took a gentle nip at my mouse. Adrenaline got the better of me and I tried to set the hook and missed, but it was a soft hook set and the mouse only moved about a foot; I put my head down and was cursing myself for not paying attention, because it was a huge fish and a split second later when I looked up, I saw the fish circling the whole way around the mouse and I instinctively jerked the line, before the fish struck. He came the whole way over to the weeds by the bank - I was out of retrieve space but he splashed at it one more time before he figured out something was amiss. Mice tend to produce a fair number of short strikes too.
Little fish like mice too. Or at least they will try to take them. I think I have mice to size 2, but fish them anywhere from sizes 2-8. Generally, the smaller the hook size, the better chance you have of hooking up with the little guys.
Browns are not the only trout that like mice at night in PA. Brookies will take them too.
Don't be afraid to try other patterns - small gurglers are a great pattern and I started out using hoppers.
Think about the way a mouse would swim and mimic your retrieve accordingly. Mice don't have a motor, so a slow but steady retrieve is good. You want to make a wake but not retrieve too rapidly. You can interject a pause at times - think strip, strip, strip, pause, strip, strip, strip, strip, pause, and then often WHAM.
Mice patterns I've used - started out with a deer hair mouse I tied myself, then used a pattern called Mighty Mouse (looks like a mouse, but I've only ever caught a steelhead on it, during the day), then tried and have been using the Blair Mouse Project pattern. I'm going to try out the Morrish Mouse this year, but I have the highest hopes for a pattern I just stumbled on called Mr. Hankey, which is kind of a cross between a zonker and a gurgler, but with one unique feature I've not see in other mice flies - it has an upturned stinger hook, and I think that will help with short strikes. I've also fished a Polk's Rat, but never caught anything with it.
Do your homework during the day - if at all possible, locate a big fish. And know the stream. There are few streams that I will wade at night but it's helpful to locate where the boulders and trees and overhanging limbs are. And don't think that the exact spot you see a fish during the day is where it will feed at night. You might find they're feeding in places you wouldn't normally see them during the day.
