Mousing 101- Mouse Gear

waiting for the moon to set

Mousing is a bit of a specialized pursuit. Beyond your waders the rest of your gear has to be tailored to night fishing. You might love your 5 weight rod, but the line typically isn't heavy enough to turn over a sodden mouse for example.

Here's what I take:

• Red LED headlamp and a spare.
• Raincoat.
• 8 weight rod.
• Reel with a good drag.
• the right line
• Nippers
• 12 lb. flourocarbon tippet.
• Box o flies.
• Insect repellent.
• Camera
• Landing glove.
• water bottle and snack.

Some of the items listed are essential, some are a personal preference. I'll cover each item with my reasons for using them.

Headlamps

using the red LED helps preserve your night vision

A good headlamp is essential. You will want one that has both white light and red light capabilities. The less you use your headlamp the better, as you will want your eyes to adjust to the darkness as much as possible. Shining your white light onto the water is a great way to put the fish down. Red LED settings allow you to tie on flies and shine the banks to judge cast distance and look for obstructions and snags without spooking fish. If you can get one, a light that switches the red LED directly on and off is preferable.

I have some cheap Energizer lights I bought at Home Depot. The red LED setting is the first to come on, but I have to cover it up and cycle it through all the white light settings to turn it off. This inconvenience is mitigated by the fact that they are a third of the cost of my previous more convenient headlamp which I left on my friends bumper at 3 AM after a long night's float. The Energizer lights are also brighter than my old light. Whatever you choose, don't go out without a headlamp.

Raincoat

This item is one of personal preference. You never know when it is going to rain as it is, and it serves as a good wind break, and keeps me warm on cooler nights. It also serves as a barrier against mosquitoes. I don't like covering myself in bug spray. The mosquitoes where I live tend to thin out after dark anyway. I wear my raincoat almost every night I fish.

8 Weight Rod

This is not so much personal preference. Mice are big flies and difficult to turn over. You are targeting the largest fish in the river. You need a rod that can handle both. If you know that your river only has fish 24 inches and under you could make do with a 6 weight rod paired with a seven weight line. I have been beaten badly several times on my 8 weight. You may skate a few teen sized fish across the water with the big rod, but when a big one makes a hard run for the lumber you'll be glad you went on the heavy side.

Reel

Any reel with a good drag. I'm a Ross fan myself. Unlike daytime fishing, I use my drag on a regular basis at night, so don't skimp on the reel.

Line

I like the RIO Grand. You need some sort of floating line that roll casts well and turns over a big fly. RIO makes the LumaLux , a glow in the dark line that lets you see where you're fishing. I have one but have never used it. Some guys and guides love it, others hate it. I'll dust mine off next summer and give it a try. I contacted SA line guru Tom Hazelton and he says the SA Titan line is hands down the best mousing line. Going up a line size is always a smart move. Experiment until you find what works for your set-up.

Nippers

I don't like a lot of stuff jangling on me at night. Nuff said. Some sort of forceps for removing the hook from a toothy mouth is also a must.

Tippet

I used to fish 3-4 feet of straight 12 pound flourocarbon. I had my perfection loop fail on a really big fish this year and so started tying my own leaders consisting of a foot of 30 lb. butt section, two feet of twenty pound and eighteen inches of 12 pound flouro, all joined by blood knots. If anyone can suggest refinements to this I appreciate it. I just won't go lower than 12 pound for tippet and don't want the whole package over 5 feet long.

Box o' Flies

I'll share fly patterns,  designs and rationale in a later post. Bring multiples of several different types and colors.

Insect Repellent

I prefer to wear my raincoat over dousing myself in chemicals, but for the remaining exposed flesh I prefer 3M Ultrathon. A little goes a long way and lasts a long time. It is also resistant to washing away. Pick your poison, but bring it.

Camera

I have been flirting with danger bringing my Canon DSLR with me. Mike Sepelak showed me his camera, the Olympus TG-1. There is also a TG-2. They are waterproof and capable of taking video. Definitely on my wish list. Just bring something. A picture is far more effective than the thousand words you will regale your friends with about your fish of a lifetime.

Landing Glove

I don't like nets. They are heavy and are prone to snagging on brush etc. I prefer to hand land all my big fish. I buy fingerless wool gloves and grab my fish by the knuckle in front of their tail. if you're not comfortable with this then by all means bring a net. Whatever you do, be gentle with the fish and do not remove them from the water if at all possible. Most of my night time fish pics are snapped in a few seconds time. We don't keep fish out of the water for minutes at a time while we scramble for cameras and gear etc.  We leave the fish in the water while we get ready, then lift, snap the shot and return it to the water, pretty much in the amount of time it took you to read this sentence. Anymore than that and you risk killing your river's breeding stock.

Refreshments

For those long nights it's nice to have a snack and some water to re-hydrate with. Sometimes it's nice to bring a celebratory beer or hip flask. Jerky is always good. I guess now I'm wandering off into optional territory.

Some other things to consider bringing may be guidebooks, maps, gps unit, smart phone, sidearm, portable tying vise and materials, Playboy bunny, flares, and Goiter the fish landing robot, but those things are entirely up to you.

hopefully it all comes together like this. Zach Ginop releasing a 24" brown

FR Calendar Winners

The Random Number Generator has spoken and the winners are (drumroll please)-

Lee Slikkers

Chase Howard

Andy La Follette

Thank you to everyone who entered and congratulations to the winners. 

Ok, I'm off to tie some flies. 

Monday Morning Coffee- Winter Blues Edition

Aauucchhhtthhppphhhtttt! Yawn, stretch, scratch repeat- it's Monday again isn't it?

I stumble out of bed slowly. The constant rumble of my furnace running all night told me all I needed to know about the weather. Still, I look outside and mumble an epithet at the two inches of fresh snow on top of the foot or more we got over the weekend. 

This blog is less about fly fishing, more of an endless rant about the weather. It warmed up just enough Friday to dump over a foot of snow (again) before dropping back to single digit temps. There's four feet of snow in my yard and the snow banks are starting to resemble mountain ranges. The drift at the end of Walloon Lake next to the road is ten feet high. Businesses and municipalities are starting to run out of places to put it. In spots you can't see the road until you pull out in it. 

I did manage to organize my fly tying stuff last week. I put my old computer desk back together to use as a tying station and bought a bunch of plastic bins to sort my materials into. It's far too harsh out to consider fishing; most if my streams have frozen over solid, so I'll focus on fly tying. 

I have received another invitation to tie with the Mayfly Club Friday. It's at a secret location code named Gobbler's Knob so I'll have to see what that's all about. 

In related news my friend Alex Cerveniak has just purchased a drift boat and if it gets into the mid-twenties this weekend we plan to take it for its maiden voyage on the Holy Waters. Friends with drift boats are the best kind of friends. 

That's all I know this week, and the coffee is gone. Tune in Wednesday to see who won the FR calendar give away. You still have until midnight tomorrow to enter. I'll also post my next installment in the Mousing 101 series. 

It's time to go to work. Let's get after it. 

FR Calendar Giveaway

I made up a few calendars this year as gifts for friends, but I'd like to give a couple away to you my readers. I went to one of those websites (http://www.lulu.com/home/) where you can upload photos, pick a style and then order your own custom made calendar.

I'm definitely not a professional photographer, but every year I seem to get a few good shots. I've included some good scenes of fish and fishing that express the Northern Michigan experience. I've tried to capture the seasons and the fishing as best I can. I hope you enjoy it.

Like I said, I made these up as gifts for a couple of friends, but I've made them available for purchase as well. I'm not really looking to make a buck, just thought if anyone wanted one they can have one. If you'd like to purchase one you can click here or on the lulu tab on the top of the right sidebar. You can preview the calendar by clicking on that tab as well.

I'm going to give away three of these calendars. Just fill out the form and I'll draw the winners and announce them next week. I'll let this run until midnight Tuesday, January 28, draw three winners via random number generator and announce them the next day. It's my way of thanking you all for reading my blog on a regular basis.

Mousing 101- Zack Ties a Mouse

Those cute little mice you see in fly shops tied from deer hair, with whiskers and ears and wee little eyes? Forget them. Brown trout do not care about whiskers.

Guys on the cutting edge of nighttime fly fishing are feverishly developing new and innovative mouse patterns and I aim to share them here. Take, for example, this tie by one of my friends.

Local dude and Boyne Outfitters guide Zachary Ginop is one of my favorite fly people out there. He's one of those young guys who has embraced the sport and this love has now born fruit. We fish together on a regular basis, and for some reason it is always a crazy experience. Something off the hook always seems to happen.

I keep saying that Zach is the next young gun who will get his flies into the Orvis catalog. He is a hardcore night specialist, and so I was very pleased when he shared a video of him tying a signature mouse pattern on YouTube.

Without further ado I give you-

This is a great mouse pattern, and something to consider when preparing for the summer night season. Get to it.

Mousing 101- Mouse Theory

In the spring when the weather and water warms, the frogs emerge from the mud and the mice from their burrows. As the water temps reach into the 60's and the days get longer, usually about mid-May, the bank side grass and water weeds sprout and grow. This encourages the activity of the mice and frogs. Their activity encourages the brown trout to target them.

I heard one guide say that we should probably call this "frogging". It's true that brown trout will eat frogs but it is well known that they target mice. Whether they prefer one over the other is up for debate, but brown trout are opportunists and likely target any critter that swims across the river. The thought process is likely more akin to "fits in my mouth/doesn't fit in my mouth".  

Both mice and frogs regularly swim across the rivers at night. I have observed this frequently. Frogs tend to swim with a kick and glide action with their nose pointed directly at the far bank. Mice tend to quarter across rivers with their nose pointed upstream and their legs kicking furiously. Current speed directly affects the swimming position of both. The swifter the current the more they tend to swim nose-in to the current. Regardless, both critters create a similar telltale wake across the surface. 

The next element you need to know is the attitude of your quarry. Big browns are comfortable at night. They can see quite well on even the blackest of nights but seem to know that you can't. They come out of their hiding places and roam at will. Noises don't scare them. I have hooked up regularly in six inches of water. 

What this means is that you are not necessarily fishing log jams and cut banks. You'll want to target feeding lanes in every setting on the river. The center of a hole where the current dumps in is one prime spot, but so is the tail out where it starts to get shallow. The best spots I've ever found are what I call "throats". They are places in a run or where a tail out dumps into a run in which the current gets funneled into the center of the river and the water is 2-3 feet deep. I've caught all my biggest fish in these spots. The strike is usually instant. The important thing is to work the whole river and not just areas you think of as big fish spots by day.

One night I was out with two friends trying to put a third buddy on fish. We were giving him all the prime spots and so I just started hitting the less ideal water above and below our friend. He did manage to land a fat 19 inch fish, but I hooked up on a fish that was closer to 30 inches that jumped several times before taking me to the wood. I got my fly back so I know he swam free. Any angler given a choice would not have fished where I was. There's no predicting with certainty where those fish will be. 

Another factor to consider is moon phase and what the fish is seeing. Our perspective is of standing above looking down into dark water. For the brown trout the perspective is completely opposite. They are in the dark looking up at the surface which is back-lit by the moon and stars.

Imagine yourself in your house with all the lights off looking out your windows. People can't see in, but you can see out, even if it's dark out. Imagine yourself looking out your windows when it is daylight versus when it is dark. Look at any unlit house during the day and it is hard to see in. If you are inside the house everything outside is easy to see. At night It is even harder to see into the house, but you can still look outside and make out some details.

 Brown trout are at their boldest on completely dark nights, and experienced anglers concentrate their efforts around the dark of the moon. During various lit phases of the moon the fishing can be quite good after dark before the moon rises. A steady bite often fades away as the moonlight hits the water. Conversely, heavy cloud cover during the full moon can make for excellent fishing.

Moon phase often affects color selection as well, and is counter-intuitive. Black flies offer the most contrast on dark nights, making your fly easier to target. White flies on moonlit nights offer the least contrast making them harder for browns to see and possibly spot as a fake. Whatever you do, make sure you switch flies and colors often to find out for sure what they want on any given night. There are no hard and fast rules, but they often do show a distinct preference at times for white versus black.

Cloud cover and the time that the moon rises or sets can make a dramatic difference in the fishing. I have had a steady bite suddenly end when the moon rises at midnight. I've seen a slow bite during the full moon pick up when clouds cover made it dark again. I had one full moon night in which I rolled several fish in every spot. Don't stay home because the moon is out, but just know that darker conditions are more conducive to mousing.

No matter what, after dark big browns come out of their daytime hiding spots and roam the river at will in search of food. Perhaps the most important element  of mousing is the tell-tale wake of your fly across the surface of the water. I'd bet I could impale a sock on a big hook and wake it across the surface and get fish to strike. There are a lot of aspects about flies that I will get into, but the central theme will always be that they make a wake across the surface.

To boil all this down to a few bullet points:

• At night browns become bold and leave their hiding places to hunt.
• Learn to see the river from their perspective.
• Any fly will do that creates a tell-tale wake.
• Learn how moon phases and lighting conditions affect the fishing and adapt accordingly. 
• Change flies and colors until you find what works.

In my next installment I'll go over the gear and rigging you'll need to be comfortable and successful at night.

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Monday Morning Coffee- Out of the Cold and Back in Action Edition

Yaw-aw- AWN. Glurgle-snarf. Yawn, stretch, scratch, repeat. Is it Monday already? Let's have some coffee.

Well the big freeze of 2013 has finally broken. It went from single digits here early in the week to warm enough to rain Friday night. As it happened I was invited to the Uber-secret Mayfly Club to tie flies for the evening and so I went.

I had long heard rumors of this secretive club. Invitations are highly coveted but seldom extended. Once you are a member you are a member for life, but there is no way to apply and no one seems to know who to contact or where their secret headquarters are. What I have been told, in those moments of clarity and honesty on a back country stream, or surreptitiously over beers in some dark dusty North Woods tavern, is that if you get the invitation you go. You don't ask questions. You don't talk too much at your first meeting. And you never give away their secrets.

Would they accept me as one of their own? Would I be invited back? Would I say the wrong things, make some unknown gaffe, perhaps tie the wrong fly and be rejected?

The Master of Ceremonies greeted me at the door. I told him the password I had been told to say. The door closed. I stood there on the steps wondering if I had been given the right one, had pronounced it wrong, or maybe I just didn't look right, standing there in my scuffed leather boots, carrying a metal RC radio case that holds my tying gear.

I stood there for what seemed an eternity, growing increasingly nervous. I had blown it I was sure. But then the door opened, and the MC handed me a Fat Tire and motioned for me to come in.

While their identities must remain secret they were all pretty normal guys. Excellent fly anglers no doubt, and superb fly tyers. We started off eating french bread pizza before settling in to tying. I sat next to an older gentleman that we'll call "Frank". He was given to saying things like "the longer I fish the fewer flies there are in my box" and "When I fish the Madison. . ."

He had all these great stories of fishing the Pigeon River Country, which he told while tying marabou streamers for catching the brook trout he loves. I was still a little nervous and, not wanting to screw up this opportunity, I failed to watch and learn. It's a pity, as Frank was tying up some beautiful flies. I played it safe and tied Au Sable skunks, a simple pattern, but a very old and local one that I was sure I couldn't screw up, and besides, I use a lot of them each summer.

By the time the evening was over it had begun pouring rain onto the snow-packed roads and so I said my goodbyes and headed home, driving slowly on the glare ice. I'm still in a probationary period, but I'm hoping to be a permanent member soon. I have been very careful here in not giving away their secrets. Perhaps someday I too will don the green jacket emblazoned with a Hexagenia dun.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, but it seemed like bad form to be a blogger at such a club, and I can't reveal identities anyway.

No, I'm not kneeling on this fish.

I also got out and fished this weekend. I met up with Alex Cerveniak Saturday, and then fished by myself Sunday for a little while. We were after steelhead, but as Alex says, it's more like trout fishing this time of year. I caught two cookie cutter steelhead jacks as I call them, one each day, from different streams. Each was about 16-17" inches long, dime-bright, hard fighting and beautiful. No monsters, just some fun fish and a great way to kick off my fishing for the year. I think I know how to get into some big fish. I'll leave my 8 wt. steelhead rod at home and fish with my 5 wt.

sorry it's blurry. It was getting dark

So that's all I know this week. The cold and snow are due to return tomorrow, so the weekends fishing will have to get me by for a while. The coffee is gone and it's time to go to work.

Let's get after it.