Fly Fishing Tips: Always Carry a Mouse in Your Pocket.

The Different Bites

• Catching a trout on a dry fly is satisfying. You choose the correct fly, have the right size tippet, mend correctly, present a natural drift, and then get bit. Very gratifying.

• A hopper bite is fun. Not as technical as throwing small dries. You can be a little sloppy in your presentation, and this can work for you. The bite is usually big, predictable, and it brings back days when you were a kid catching trout on live crickets.

• A mouse bite, this is a different animal. It is all of the above and then some. It's hunting; it taps into an older, more primitive side to our personalities. We want to witness a fish aggressively eat a mammal at the end of our fly line.

Mousing

Mousing is moving a ball of fur in front of your cat, trying to make it pounce. It's top water action, where you are working a mouse imitation across the water to mimic the real thing as it struggles and swims. You are tempting a big trout on the hunt for big food.

When Do You Fish a Mouse Imitation

The broad answer is - any time you find a piece of water where it looks like a mouse can fall in, crawl in, or somehow find itself swimming in, and you can work it with a mouse imitation. Hooking a trout on a mouse fly isn't a high percentage game, but the strike is so satisfying that it's always worth a try if the conditions look promising. One hook-up will make you a believer.

Two Places I'll Always Cast a Mouse

• Wood: Stumps, log jams, and fallen trees - any wooden structure that a mouse can crawl on and end up falling in the water is potential mousing water. When I see a log jam or a stump in a creek, especially positioned in deeper water, I visualize a mouse crawling on a piece of wood and falling in. What would that look like? How would it swim? Where would the current take it? Then I will cast my mouse and try to do the same.

• Banks or shorelines that drop into deep water. "Deep" can be as shallow as a foot or a bank with an undercut. Any place where a big trout can comfortably move and hunt. I'll cast the mouse pattern up onto the shore and walk the mouse back into the water. Right at the water line, I try to move the mouse in such a way as to cause a disturbance upon its entrance. To see a big trout hit a mouse as it enters the water is a pure adrenaline rush.

The above YouTube film is an exceptional fly fishing short made by Todd Moen and Brian O'Keefe. It visually covers all the aspects of mousing, plus captures the predatory strikes of big trout.

How to Entice a Strike.

Be sensitive to how fast and far you move a mouse when you are manipulating it with your fly line. It is not a bionic mouse. You are trying to impersonate the real thing. Imagine how far or fast a mouse's tiny legs and feet can move when it is in the water. Make it look like it is struggling and splashing around, especially when it is caught in a current.

The Gear I Use

- Fly Rod: A 6 or 7-weight is fine, but with some requirements. If I'm using a 6-weight, I prefer it to have a fighting butt. If I go with a 7-weight, I find a rod that is slim in profile, has a low swing weight, and is on the lighter side.

- Fly Reel: I have no specific preference for a fly reel. Make sure whatever reel you choose balances well with the rod. This is important and often overlooked when putting together a setup.

- Fly Line: I like the Scientific Angler Amplitude Smooth Infinity Plus fly line. It is a one-size-heavier line for easy turn over of big fly patterns. Its smooth finish makes the casting and manipulation of the fly line more enjoyable.

My favorite Mouse Patterns

- The Morrish Mouse

- Mr. Hankey

- The Master Splinter

Be Prepared

A mouse bite doesn't happen often, but I always carry at least two mouse imitations in my fly box. It's happened before where I'm fishing a creek and I stumble upon some water that looks so mousy that I have to try. More often than not, it leads to nothing, but that one time you find a big, hungry trout willing to play, and you will discover the dark side of a meat-eating trout. KB

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