When Browns Attack
A How-to on Nighttime Mousing
by Chris Lessway
I have been fortunate enough to grow up in Michigan where there are plenty of trout fishing streams nearby. The Au Sable and the Manistee Rivers are two of my favorites. Both streams boast great hatches and are home to leviathan brown trout. Come the beginning of July, most of the major hatches have come to an end. The Hex hatch maniacs have packed up camp and put away their headlamps.
Anglers begin to concentrate on throwing terrestrials and streamers in hopes of landing a trophy brown. While these two methods can be successful, an even more reliable approach many anglers tend to overlook is nighttime mousing. That’s right: don’t put away that headlamp just yet! The crowds are gone and the fish are still hungry. With warmer and humid days this time of year, the bigger fish prefer to feed at night and this is the time to catch them.
It was the end of July. A friend of mine who was new to fly fishing called me up and told me how he was becoming frustrated. He complained that all he caught were small trout and he was ready to give it up. I assured him there are ways to catch bigger trout. “Ever heard of nighttime mousing?” I asked. After a bout of laughter on the other end of the line, I took that as a no. So I told him to grab his gear and come on up to the Au Sable for the weekend.
Temperatures were in the mid 80’s all week long and the nights were hot and humid as well; all perfect conditions for mousing. We launched the boat at dusk. By the time we arrived at the first hole, darkness had settled in. I gave him a quick “how-to” on mousing, then handed him a rod rigged with a mouse pattern. After methodically covering the first hole with no luck, he became a little discouraged. With a pat on the back, I reassured him to relax. “We have plenty of river left to fish.”
The next hole we came to was a long, flat, and log laden pool just above a riffle. I told him to cast to the bank. No sooner than the fly hit the water, there was a thunderous crash of water. “Set the hook!” I yelled. “Fish on!” he exclaimed. After a stint of rod pumping runs up and down the river, a 22-inch slab of a brown trout came to the net. “High five!”
Throughout the night we continued to move plenty of fish, hooking a few and missing even more. By the time the night was said and done, we landed at total of 3 fish between 18 and 22 inches. My friend’s discouragement had diminished and he became a believer.
While many anglers have heard about fishing with a mouse pattern, only a handful has actually tried it. Having worked in different fly shops, I always got a chuckle out of customers who would come in and pick up a mouse pattern out of the fly bin and ask, “What the heck do you catch with this?”
Just to see their reaction, I would reply “Catfish.” All joking aside, fishing a mouse pattern at night is going to be your best shot at catching your biggest trout of the year, and will provide you with edge of your seat, explosive excitement!
PRESENTATION
Presentation is a very important aspect of mousing. Your casting angle and fly placement are crucial. There are a couple different ways to fish a mouse pattern. The first way is to cast across stream, as tight to the bank as possible. Once the fly hits the water, you want to make slow strips with short pauses in between.
Sometimes I like to twitch my rod tip and give the fly a popping sound while letting the fly drift in between. A second way to fish them is to swing the fly down and across, similar to swinging a fly for steelhead. With this method, you still want to cast your fly tight to the bank, but at a 45 degree angle. You do not need to worry about stripping or popping your fly. You want the current to carry your fly out and across, while creating a small wake.
While both methods can be effective, I still prefer the first one when possible. This method seems to bring up bigger fish, as it gives a more realistic presentation of a mouse swimming in the water. Do not limit yourself to just one style; let the situation and conditions determine which presentation to use. If you come to a stretch of river where it is too narrow to cast across to the bank, go ahead and try swinging the fly. Remember, you are searching water and trying to elicit a strike. If a fish does hit, do not set the hook like you would on a dry fly. Most of the time you will just pull the fly away from the fish. Use a strip set. This is more effective, and if the fish is not hooked, it will leave the fly in the water. Brown trout are very aggressive. Sometimes they will come back and hit the fly multiple times.
When casting, don’t worry about being delicate. You want that fly to smack the water in hopes of getting the attention of a fish. I don’t know how many times I have had a fish hit my fly almost immediately after it hits the water, way before I could even get one strip in.
WATER & CONDITIONS
During the day, fish seek out shelter in whatever kind of structure they can find. (Boulders, downed trees, sunken docks and logjams.)
At night time they tend to let their guard down and move out to feeding lanes and sometimes even the inside of a river bend. Just because you know the water is shallow in a particular area, do not be afraid to cast there, especially if there is good cover nearby. You will be surprised where fish tend to hold at night. Stay away from the faster, broken water and concentrate on the soft, slower moving water.
The moon phases are also key to your success. Some of my best days have come when the moon is less than half full. When there is a full moon, I tend to have my best luck early in the night, before the moon rises above the treetops and lights up the river like a runway. On nights where there is a new moon or crescent moon, the fishing can sometimes be good all night long. If you are unsure about the moon phases, get online and do some research. In the long run it will pay off.
YOUR GEAR
If you hook a large brown trout when fishing near cover, guess where it is going to go? You got it, straight for the logs, and all the better reason to leave the four and five weights at home. I typically like to use a 6 or 7 weight rod. Hooking fish over 20 inches is not that uncommon, and you want to be able to turn that fish away from the twisted piles of lumber or what have you. Another reason I prefer to use a heavier weight rod is that many mouse flies tend to be big, bushy, wind resistant flies. That six or seven weight is going to turn that fly over and make casting much easier. Sometimes I will even go as far as over lining my rod by one line weight, especially if I am casting a really large bushy fly. This will also help to turn your fly over.
When choosing a leader, you do not have to be fancy. I like to use a short stout leader of 12 to 15 pound test and about 3 to 4 feet in length. Sometimes I will even take an old dry fly leader and cut about 5 feet or so off. You do not have to worry about stealth. It’s dark outside and the fish can’t see your line. The extra heavy leader will also come in handy when you snag your fly up on a log or tree limb. I rarely lose many flies when mousing.
THE FLIES
Deer hair, foam and more deer hair; all are important materials too look for when choosing a mouse pattern. Mouse, frog, steelhead bombers and gurgler patterns are all good choices. Just because we are “mousing,” does not mean the fly has to look like an actual mouse. We want a fly that creates a wake and sometimes makes a little noise. When casting across the current, I prefer to use a gurgler style fly, as these tend to make a good popping sound and draw a lot of attention. When swinging my fly down and across, I like to use a fly that rides low in the water and creates a good wake. Using more buoyant flies can cause the fly to pop up out of the water when the fish hits, making it harder to hook the fish. Having a variety of flies in different sizes with you will increase your success. Don’t be afraid to change it up a bit.
SAFETY AT NIGHT
Nighttime mousing does not have to be a daunting experience. If you are unsure about the whole nighttime fishing venture, bring a friend along or hire a guide. There is no better way to learn the water. If you do decide to go at it alone, always be sure to let someone know where you are going. Learn the area of river you plan on fishing by scouting it out during the day. The more you know the river, the more confident you will be while wading at night. A few essential items to bring include a headlamp with extra batteries, a wading staff and eye protection. Be sure not to skimp out on the eye protection. There’s something to be said about casting large flies with sharp hooks in the dark.
While fishing at night is not for everyone, it is an experience in itself. The rushing sounds of the river flowing through a riffle, the fireflies sporadically dancing though the tall grass and trees, along with the quietness of night equal tranquility at its finest. The river becomes and entirely different place. If you love solitude and targeting large predatory trout, then throwing these oversize hairballs at night is your ticket to the show!
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