Night Time Mousin' (Part 2)

THE FLIES
Although they are intended to stay on the surface, I don’t think it would be right to call this dry fly fishing. Surface streamer fishing would be more accurate, and do less harm to your relationships with all Low RiderDeer Hair Mouse-Ratyour “match the hatch” buddies. Typically, they are made with something for flotation, either deer body hair, or closed cell foam, they are designed to throw a big wake, and are built on big hooks (size 4 to 2/0).

Note: The Mouse-Rat involves alot of stacking of deer hair. It's messy and time consuming. It's a mouse pattern I generally purchase rather than tie. Mouse Rat (cut the tail)

THE CAST
Prior to going out at night, I strongly recommend that you practice casting during daylight hours, AT the section of water you intend to fish. Depending on the contour of the shoreline, you’ll either use a water-haul cast, or a combination of roll cast and lob cast. The idea is to get your mouse to land close to the far bank, without actually getting it hung up. Also, my preference is to aim my mouse to land slightly downstream along that far bank. I generally don’t aim directly across the river.

The roll cast/lob doesn’t get the same distance for me that I can achieve with a water-haul cast. Whenever I have the opportunity, I generally go with the water-haul. Water-hauling means that on the back cast, you let your fly and a few feet of fly line, actually hit the water. The tension that builds up on that portion of the fly line, can be transferred to the rod, adding a lot of “load” to the rod. That ends up giving you a very powerful forward cast, and allows you to shoot additional line if you need to. Obviously, this is something that needs practice during daylight hours.

THE SWING
As dusk turns into darkness, you should find yourself at the head of the pool you want to fish. Cast your mouse across to the far bank, and slightly downstream. Immediately lower your rod tip, and keep swinging your rod tip so that it stays in front of the mouse. Let the current grab the belly in your fly line. It’s the current’s action against your fly line that actually drags your mouse across and down the river. You are NOT pulling the mouse. The current is doing that for you. By swinging your rod tip to keep it in front of the mouse, you are keeping your rod tip in position to strike if a brown should hit.

Let your fly swing completely downstream, and adjacent to the near shoreline. Strip in enough line to prepare for your next cast. Cast again to approximately the same location.
After casting 2 or 3 times (maybe 4 times), on the next cast, I’ll use my free hand, to make 2 or three foot-long strips during the swing. Sometimes this added action is all it takes to solicit a strike.

If I’ve had no action after 5 or six casts, I’ll slowly take 3 “giant steps” down stream. Wait 30 seconds to allow the ripples on the pool to quiet down, then begin your casting sequence again.

Although I have caught a number of fish early on in the pool, I have to admit, that most of the action seems to come at the tail end. Nevertheless, I’ll never pass up the head of the pool, either. It’s dark out, quiet, peaceful. Why in the world would I want to rush through this, just to get to the tail end of the pool?

THE TAKE . . . THE FIGHT
Up until this time, everything has been done in the dark, with your headlamp off. You’ve got into a pretty good rhythm. You’re enjoying life . . . seen a shooting star or two . . . marveling at the night time sky and the solitude . . .

Ken's Hawg: 22-inch brown attacked a mouse-rat.Then ALL OF A SUDDEN, the river erupts like some WWII depth charge in the Atlantic! Your arms instinctively flail backwards. There’s a solid hook-up and the fight is on. Let your drag do its job! For the time being, just hold on. As the brown settles down a bit, reach up and turn on your light. Enjoy it. Don’t hurry it.

Try to be considerate. Summer water temperatures are often times in the mid to upper sixties. Those kinds of temps can put a lot of stress on a played out brown trout. Water temps in the low seventies, can be lethal. Land him quickly. Keep him in the water. Plan out your photography BEFORE you take him out of the water. Minimize how long you take him out of his environment. Then, keep him in shallow, calm water as long as he needs to swim off under his own power.

Now, go home and get some shut-eye.