Mice and other night flies

[Jim Lampros]

Hey Ya’ll,

I have been cranking out streamers and nymphs all winter and I’ve finally gotten bored. Starting to think of summer and wanting to fill a night box. Anybody have some proven patterns to share? I know Travis Wiles shared some stuff he had been working on a while back but I haven’t been able to turn up that thread. Looking forward to seeing what you guys have to share!

JL

[anonymous]

Hi

There is a long tradition of night specific patterns in the

[mark s]

Jim,

I’ve usually used the Morrish Mouse and had success (it’s easy to tie as well):

Last year we happened to be fishing and actually saw a live mouse swimming across the water.  I was amazed to see both how fast it made it across as well as how little of its body was underwater.  I sold my buddy on night fishing at that moment.

[Neal Osborn]

Hey Ya’ll,

I have been cranking out streamers and nymphs all winter and I’ve finally gotten bored.

What a fantastic quote, Jim!

[lee church]

Jim,

(it’s easy to tie as well):

Nice man do you have a pattern?

LC

[Tim Pommer]

Jim,

I tie the morrish mouse, but with a slight variation.

[lee church]

so the deer hair? spun just like a normal mouse?

[Tim Pommer]

Ditch the deer hair bro.

[mark s]

I’ve done both – the deer hair is a pain and you use a ton of hair.

[Grant Wright]

I like to tie big, black streamers using magnum zonker strips with a little flash – the fly really pushes a lot of water and the dark color makes it easier for fish to see at night.

[Rob Snowhite]

My mouse is uber easy:

• tie in black vernile for tail
  cut 1″ section of home depot pipe insulating foam out of the tube, taper it down with scissors
  tie in weed guard
  tie down sliver of foam to form base to prevent fly from rotating on hook
  tie down 1″ section with heavy thread in 3 segmented sections
  head cement underneath
  stick on eyes if you want, fish don’t see them, add extra weight anyway

i’ll admit i have not landed a fish on one yet, still trying.
i’ve caught fish on whitlock’s mouserat before

lets see if this server will allow me to uplaod:

fish view:

angler view out of focus (same fly)

different fly, brown tail, in focus

[Grant Wright]

I’ve tied a few mice using stacked ram’s wool/sculpin wool and a foam back/head for added bouyancy.

[keith b]

Just a thought on that rubber mouse.

[Rob Snowhite]

If referring to mine, haven’t thought about a slit.
I use the weed guard to:
a. mimic the motion of feet underwater, they/it drag through the water and cut it in the front of the fly, where the forelegs would be. tinkering with idea of flaps for feet.
b. weed guard allows me to toss that thing up on the bank and drag it from the grass to splat right on the edge as if it was a real mouse falling in. a mouse intentionally going in would more or less slide in like a muskrat.

believe it or not, i’ve watched you tube videos of rats swimming to figure out the best way to tie on the foam (rubber), tail, and weed guard.

[Tim Angeli]

The Gartside Gurgler is another good pattern and very easy to tie.

[Jim Lampros]

Great stuff guys, thanks a bunch for the responses. I spun up a few variations of all of the above today, I’ll try to get some pictures up this weekend.

JL

[T. Wiles]

Foam diver tied in black or purple..great for strikes on surface.

Wool head with Zonker tail tied in, then palmered for bulky body.

[Author]

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