Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - July/August 2013 - 9

Tying the
Mouse

by Charles R. Meck
photos by the author

Tie it or buy it? For more than 60 fly-tying
years, I had a double standard. Those flies
that I felt comfortable in tying, I tied. Some
of the more difficult patterns that were too
intricate to tie, I bought. The mouse pattern
was one of those difficult flies until I found a
new pattern.
Todd Deluccia, Curwensville, first showed
and tied this fantastic mouse pattern for
me. We will follow his tying directions. To
begin the tying procedure, he uses a strip of
pine squirrel for the tail. He strips most of
the hair off the strip of pine squirrel leaving
enough at the end to look like a bushy tail.
Todd then ties in seven or eight bunches of
brown bucktail hair beginning at the bend of
the hook and ending just behind the eye. The
brown fibers from the tail are heavier, longer
and courser than body hair. He ties these as
you would a caddis pattern tied with deer
hair only tying in the deer hair seven or eight
times, each time cutting or trimming the
front tag. After the body is completed, Todd
clips any deer hair from the underbelly.
To copy the face and belly, Todd uses a
piece of tan, 4-millimeter foam and uses a
permanent marker to paint in the eyes. He
ties in the piece of tan foam underneath and
at the bend of the hook. After he completes
the body, Todd pulls the foam at the tail
underneath the body and folds the foam over
the eye of the hook. Then, he pushes the eye
of the hook through the center of the foam.
He ties off the foam about ¼ inch behind the
eye to copy the body and face of the Mouse.
Use a large hook and strong tying thread.
Lighter threads aren’t strong enough to tie
in the deer hair. Todd uses a size 2, 4X long
streamer hook and GSP 200 denier black
thread for tying.
Tying the body in this manner makes this
mouse pattern one of the easiest to tie. Try
the pattern the next time you fish for bass. It
may be the pattern that hooks your next bass
or large trout.
PFBC website: www.fishandboat.com

Mouse

Hook: Size 2, 4X long streamer hook
Thread: GSP 200 denier black
Tail: Pine squirrel zonker strip
Body: Brown deer hair from the back
of a bucktail
Underbelly: 4 millimeter tan foam
Head: 4 millimeter tan foam, folded
over hook eye

1

Tie in the pine squirrel tail. Make it
roughly 3 inches long, and remove the
hair from the top of the strip, leaving
hair only at the tip. Tie the tail in at
the bend.

2

Take tan foam, and cut it 5/8 inch wide
and 2½ to 3 inches long. Tie it in on
the bottom of the hook at the bend.

3

Take a pinch of deer hair and tie in.
Secure it with tying thread, and trim
tag ends as close as possible.

4

Add a second bunch of deer hair just
in front of the first bunch. Continue
adding deer hair for the body until you
near the eye of the hook.

5

Trim all hair from the underbelly as
you progress.

6

Pull the tan foam that you tied in at
the bend under the belly of the fly.
Bring it up to the eye, and fold foam
over the eye of the hook. Push the eye
of the hook through the center of the
foam. Tie off the foam going over both
the bottom foam and the top foam
folded over the piece roughly 1/4 inch
behind the eye. Whip finish, and cut
thread off. Reattach tying thread just
behind the eye and in front of the
foam. Build a thread dam in front of
the foam. Whip finish again, and trim
the thread. Trim the foam head in the
form of a semicircle. Use a permanent
black marker, and make two eyes.
Pennsylvania Angler & Boater • July/August 2013

9
http://www.fishandboat.com
Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - July/August 2013

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