For the mouse

For the mouse

by Kuba Chruszczewski

In the excellent, probably already iconic movie „Once on a blue moon” we can watch how against the backdrop of breathtaking landscapes, in the crystal rivers and lakes of New Zealand are caught in specimen rainbow and brook trout. Nothing new, New Zealand a fly fisherman's paradise is. What is interesting, however, is that the magnificent fish are caught in this film on imitations of small rodents, which periodically become easily accessible food for the fish. There are moments when

Their quantity is such that they become the dominant food of salmonids. Well - the skeptic will say - in New Zealand, people go upside down, so also their trout can feed on mice. Like cats...

  And yet, even in our country, cases of fish devouring rodents or other small mammals are not rare. Probably many anglers could give examples of such behavior. I once caught a trout in the Tanew River that had a recently swallowed grub in its stomach. I heard about two moles found in a fat trout caught in one of the rivers near Krakow Fishing in the San River, I saw a water-borne mole devoured by a large fish - a trout, a loggerhead, a fat chub? I think that no predator large enough will not disdain such a prey, which suddenly came within reach of the mouth. One catches taimen and pike on surface crankbaits imitating a mouse, so why not try a similar lure using the fly method? Certainly a small mouse twisted on a #2-4 hook for trout or fat chub, a larger , #2/0-6/0 for pike or steelhead will work.

  I encourage you to try such unusual lures - they can surprise you with their effectiveness.

Here are two not-so-hard-to-make mouse imitations:

    Photo 1.

To make a mouse we will need a suitably large hook, a strip of leather with hair ( for example, from a rabbit, for smaller mice it can be nutria or mink)), a piece of buoyant foam - I used the kind used for pipe insulation. This foam will make our imitation float on the surface of the water. The tail can be made from a strip of skin with very short hair.

   Photo.2.

Tie a tail to the hook, from the top of the shank attach the leading thread of the foam so that a piece extends beyond the eye of the hook.

   Photo.3.

We return the thread to the point of attachment of the tail and tie a strip of skin with fur. This is the so-called cross cut, that is, a strip cut perpendicular to the direction of the natural lay of the hair. Wind the peel in the direction of the head laying the coil next to the coil, all the time combing the hair back. You should apply the peel on a base of glue, but it is essential to check first that it does not dissolve the foam.

   Photo.4.

We reach with coils to the place where the foam stands off from the hook, tie the skin with one coil of thread. Now we bend the foam back and tie with strong coils of thread so that we get a round head. Now we wind the last two coils of the peel, one coil behind and one in front of the headstock. The ruddy part of the foam can be modeled by cutting with scissors to the desired shape. This piece influences the induction of turbulence when pulling the fly down the surface, causing specific movement and attracting noises.

   Photo.5.

The mouse is ready . Thanks to the use of foam , it will have the ability to stay on the surface despite soaking the fur with water . It works best when conducted with a few short strokes of the string , punctuated by a pause of a few seconds - then the attack usually occurs.

Deer mouse.

Photo.6.

Materials:

Hook, tail as before.

Winter coat of deer (can also be deer or fallow deer) in two shades - darker for the back and lighter for the belly.

Plastic bead eyes.

Photo.7.

We fix the hook in a vise, for safety we put a piece of plstik tube on the spearhead.

We tie the tail. We apply bunches of light hair from the bottom of the shank, dark hair from the top. We prune the dark hair so that the natural ends of the hair are directed to the back, the rest we try to cut as short as possible.

Photo.8.

 Tie in successive bunches of fur, all the while pushing and whipping the fur well as if making a muddler type fly head. Before tying the last two - three bunches, we fix the eyes with plastic beads.

 Photo.9.

After tying the eyelets, we add the fur so as to fill the entire length of the hook shank with it. Now we cut the fur first modeling the head and then the underside of the fly made of light hair. The dorsal part does not need to be sheared if we managed to shape the fur correctly.

Photo.10.

The deer hair mouse floats thanks to the specific characteristics of the material from which it is made. Winter deer hair has a foam structure, so it collects a lot of air - this provides the animal with thermal insulation in the cold season, and the flies made from it with good buoyancy.