THE FLIEDERMOUSE

The Fliedermouse 

    

I don't normally fish topwater flies as my primary type. 
There, I said it. Clap me in irons, sharpen the guillotine.

    I tend to view fly fishing as a shallow water style, and top-water flies are a natural. So don't be concerned by that opening statement - I like shallow water floating flies, bugs, and poppers. There is nothing as exciting as that splashy surface bite. 

    Yessir, surface patterns have their place and I usually start any session by fishing the surface. 

    
    But there is an inherent problem with surface flies that is almost never mentioned: They are useful only part of the time. 

    When the sun gets high, or the wind turns sharp and brisk, they start to be ignored. Or, for whatever reason known only to the fish, they just won't come up to take a surface offering.
    At those times, I start probing down in the water column.
Many fly anglers simply won't fish anything BUT a surface fly or bug.... but I'm not one of them. 

    So I'm in two minds - I know there is a time to let go of the surface fly and fish down in the water. But I also like floating foam patterns, and I really like imaginative "creature" flies. 

    Some would say I'm conflicted; but I say, "Not at all."
I call it smart... or maybe realistic. Maybe both.
    And with that understood, I feel safe in saying that I have been taken with this particular foam-and-hair surface bug.

THE FLIEGERMOUSE ... What's In A Name?

    The name of this fly, "Fliedermouse," is a clever play on words, something I also like. The word, "flieger," in German means flyer. There also used to be a popular old pattern called the "Fledermaus" - German for "bat."
    This one borrows from these ideas and mixes them all into... "The Fliedermouse." The "Flying Mouse," if you like.

    This pattern comes from Harrison Steeve III's book, "Tying Flies with Foam, Fur, and Feathers." 

    If you like terrestrial flies and tying with foam, it is a must have for your library.

Rear Quarter View

A UNIQUE APPROACH

    Harrison developed a concept using craft foam discs as the base material for any number of flies, and this is simply that: several foam discs of different sizes, affixed in imaginative ways to the hook. 

    Added to the Fliedermouse is another favorite material of mine - deer hair. In this case, if forms a durable tail and wings.
As far as I'm concerned..., "Deer hair is fish-catching magic!"
You can quote me on that.

    The tail is deer hair tied on the hook shank in the usual way for a tail. I tie it in tight, but not too tight that it flares widely. The body is a disc of foam, folded up and around the hook, taco-style, so it surrounds the butts of the deer-hair tail.
Super glue holds it closed.
    The shoulders and head are another two discs.
One is pinched to a tiny point, then tied just in front of the body to form the shoulder. A jot of super glue holds it tight to the front of the body 
    Next comes two tufts of deer hair, one each tied to either side to form wings.
The last item to go on is another disc, pinched and tied in at the eye, forming the head shell. Here again, a little more super glue holds one atop the other, keeping the hair wing under control.

    Some fur dubbing, or peacock herl, blends the bottom of the what is now a thorax into a whole.

You end up with a foam surface bug having a combination effect:

Part waking slider
Part hair fly
Part critter

NOTE: Fliedermouse is a two material fly, but don't let that fool you  - it is not a "quickie," simple tie. It requires some dedicated material prep, a couple of tricky bindings, skillful thread tension control, and the winging work of a "Humpy" trout fly.
    If you like 2 step patterns, this may not be for you.

    But, it's not terribly difficult, either. If you have other foam and fur patterns under your belt, and aren't raw beginner,... you should give it a go. If you run into trouble, just contact me at the email below and I'll help you over the rough spots.
My suggestion? Tie the first ones big, to get the hang of it.

Bottom View

FISHING NOTES

    Let me be up front here....

    I want to tell you The 

Fliedermouse has caught every species of fish, from Ankara to Zanzibar. 

I'd love to tell you how bass and bluegill leap from the water to grab them. 

    Well,.... I have only fished them in my local warm water lakes and ponds. I have trolled them over submerged weeds. They have been cast in among rocks, docks, wood and weeds in my float tube stomping grounds.
    The fish always react positively, however, and the Fliedermouse gets bit readily. 

So at this point, I can say it works, and has great universal potential. 

    My suggestion is to tie it in the #6 hook range, on a fairly long hook 3X, 4X that hind of thing. I use Aberdeens.
This way, they cast handily, and appeal to both bass and panfish.*

Then, fish the heck outta the thing.

* This size range is known as the Bass-Bluegill Lap and is covered here, by Skip Morris:
The Bass-Bluegill Lap

    Add The Fliedermouse to your kit as a complement to poppers, when something more subtle is called for.

You may find the fish will like them better. 

Or just maybe, you will.

I hope you liked this, and learned something from it. I have  no idea how to make money at this article writing , so I go for a job well done. If you think I did that, please like and share. 

Thanks for reading, and "Tight Lines!"

David Hutton 

If you have questions, you are invited to send them by email to... dahutist@gmail.com
And don't forget to subscribe, leave a comment, and join us on Facebook, here: Palmetto Fly N Fish

All rights reserved, Palmetto Fly N Fish© 2018, 2023

Bob Holland

BOB HOLLAND

I had a good chat last week with Bob Holland, up there in Wisconsin. Well, I say "chat," but I mean text session. Thats how it goes these days - we text as much as we speak.

So, I'll say we had a bonding moment, and leave the term, "chat" to your interpretation.

We talked about ultralight fishing and gear, and Bob was especially interested in small lures for light tackle fishing this summer.

This means light weight spinning for small bass, what I call "rocket bass." Basically, he wanted ideas for fishing artificials, instead of bobber watching. And he wants to use 4 lb mono... that is a sporting fellow after my own heart!

NO FRILLS

I didnt break any rules or suggest the latest "revolutionary" bait for Bob...

"Pretty much the same stuff you’d use for bigger bass," I said:

• Micro- and mini-crankbaits
• Small weedless spoons
• Small in-line spinners, 1/16-1/12 oz
• Beetle Spins, size 1-3
• Mini poppers, like the small Hula Poppers available today.
• 1/8 - 1/32 oz jig heads and twister tails
• 1/8 oz Sliders (a fave)
  
  BEETLE SPIN 
  You'll notice I included the Beetle Spin in that list, and it turns out Bob is also a fan, too. He calls em, "easy to fish," and I cant say I disagree.
  Its probably my single, most-used spinning lure in the warm season.

I have tons of other lure types; boxes full, to be honest. But when I reach in my tackle bag, I usually have to make myself choose something else.

They're easy to cast, almost impossible to fish wrong, fast or slow, and they tend to shrug off snags. I wont call them snag-proof, but they can be bumped and knocked into rocks and wood without too much worry.

The little grub bodies can be mixed and matched with different blades, and you can add rubber legs to them by pulling the strands through with a needle. These often get strikes when the plain ones don't.

Finally, you can buy a Beetle Spin with a couple of extra grub bodies in an array of colors, for a dollar or so.

Versatile, with a capital, "V" applies to the Beetle Spin.

You can hardly ask an artificial lure to do more. Old Virgil Ward had a good one one with the Beetle Spin.

SLIDER

Our discussion also gave me the chance to remind someone about Charlie Brewers, “Slider.”

Do you old timers remember the Slider? Today, its called the Crappie Slider, and is sold in sizes that appeal to those fish. But other fish, including bass – especially bass - will take them.

More on that in a minute.
So, if youre too young to know what a Slider is, well, here's the general idea.

Actually, the Slider is a pair of items: a hook-and-soft plastic combination. Each is a fish out of water without the other, you might say.

The hook is unique, as it is shaped like a bass worm hook, but with a broad, lead head, like a jig.

The Slider "grub body" has a ribbed front half with a squirmy, disc-shaped paddle tail that wiggles if a fish even farts near it.

So, add a very soft plastic body with a seductive tail, on a sorta-Texas rigged hook. But, they are smaller and lighter in weight than most bass lures, and it fishes slow.

And that's slow spelled, "S-L-O-W." 

That really was Old Charlie Brewers technique – he called it, "Do Nothing" fishing. He fished his Slider creepingly, agonizingly slow. The lure was crawled and worked across the bottom and over obstructions like a living thing, in no hurry to get anywhere. ,

He said if your reel handle makes more than a full turn in 30 seconds, you're working it too fast. "Its harder to fish something that slow, than to crank em fast," he used to say.

Here's the kicker - He won a lot of tournament money with it in his time.

Today, it's a safe bet not many fish have seen em.

My first experience with the Slider is a bit different than one might expect. It lead to the first spotted sunfish I ever saw, lepomis punctatus, which came out of Langley Pond in Aiken, SC on a homemade Slider hook.

I had never seen a genuine Slider hook at that time, but that wasn't going to stop me. I figured I could make one; and it wasn't hard. With a chartreuse twisty tail grub, I pulled that big spotted sunfish right out of some tree roots by crawling my ersatz Slider through its tangled lair.

Yes, I just recommended a crappie lure, that catches large sunfish, for rocket bass. Put those three together, let it percolate, and the question becomes obvious: Why are you NOT using Sliders?

FLIES

As we both love fly fishing, in addition to spinning, we eventually got to flies. What he was most interested in is small streamers for the bass in his local ponds and rivers. We brainstormed up a couple flies to cover the water, again without shaking the pillars of the earth in the process.

- Clouser Deep Minnow
This classic fly needs little introduction, Some bucktail on a hook, with dumbbell eyes, that's pretty much it. I like to work a little marabou into the tail for movement, but I try to keep them sparse and not make them too heavy with whopper-sized eyes.

"I took a fly tying class 30 years ago, and the instructor said most people overdress their flies, so I gotta watch that."

Good advice.

THE CREASE FLY

"Hey Bob, you want a killer surface fly that murders bass when they are feeding there?"

"Of course not," he said. He didn't meant it.

Bob is not only smart, but a wisecracker.
I like him.

"Good man," I said. "Its a hybrid, between a popper and minnow.

What you do is tie up a simple foam fly called The Crease Fly. Use some bucktail and marabou in the tail. You cut the body from craft foam, use a little super glue, and voila!

It's simple, easy and cheap, and it’s a killer in shallow water feeding situations."

NYMPHS

"How about Nymphs?" he wondered. "I've wanted to get a nymph game going."

"Dragonflies – think dragonflies," I told him.

"Well, dragonfly nymphs to be precise. Dont waste your time on all the fussy little mayfly nymph patterns for this kinda fishing.
Everything eats dragonfly nymphs, nearly all year - everything.
There's a pattern called, "Jim's Damsel," to check out. 

Its an odd name, because it really has no resemblance to a damsel nymph. But, it passes well for a dragon, and is also easy to tie.

I also like the Briminator, for the same purpose, and it is virtually the same thing with a shorter tail."

(Yeah, I got in a dig for that great little fly from Texas. In case you missed it, search my earlier post about the Briminator.)

THE BEST FOR LAST
A last good thing that came out of this discussion.
Bob has accepted the role of Research and Development Coordinator for the Palmetto Fly N Fish, Northern Division. This includes all the perks and benefits of the position..., which boils down to a beer coozie and a handshake.

Hey, PfnF is family friendly, but were on a budget around here!

So what this actually means is I'll send some of my "experimental flies" to Bob, and he'll see how they work. I guess I better say, here, that they're not really MY flies - I got the idea from some other flies and just kind of evolved from there.

And isnt that kind of how it goes? We think we’ve got something special, and then we find out we don't; somebody else beat us to it.
Usually a long time ago.

But I have drafted a little wrinkle into the whole thing so with Bob’s assistance, we’ll see how that works out.

So, looky there – a list of good spinning lures to cover most situations, a trio of proven flies to take fish under many circumstances, and someone to send flies to.

Now thats a good day in anyone's book.

Tight Lines

David