Mouse flies are an easy and exciting way to target big fish. Here’s how

FLIES

There are numerous mouse patterns, but most aren’t very good. They tend to be needlessly complicated and worse, they often imitate a human conception of a mouse, not what the fish see. A mouse fly just needs a mammalian profile, and to give the impression of something that’s alive and struggling. Materials that wiggle in the water are good; adding eyes, ears, whiskers and a nose is merely gilding the lily.

The best pattern I’ve found is the Morrish Mouse (pictured above). It cleverly uses mousey-looking deer hair and rabbit for the parts the fish can see, with a foam strip on top for flotation. The foam also extends forward to give the fly an erratic, sputtering action, both when drifted and retrieved. It’s also a basically indestructible fly.