Post by michaelrowland on Jul 16, 2013 7:01:16 GMT -5
That time of the year again, folks. When spooky things go "burp" in the night.
After fishing a ton of different mouse patterns, I decided to combine different elements of some of my favorites to come up with something more productive. The butt sinking versatility of the Dirty Rat, the wake producing merit of the Morrish Mouse and most importantly the hooking ability of Mr. Hankey’s. The Count Chocula Mouse was the result of my experiments, and should serve you just as well as it has served me.
Materials
■Front Hook – Tiemco 9395 Sz 4
■Stinger Hook – Gamakatsu Octopus Sz 4
■Danville’s 210 Waxed Flymaster Plus Thread
■Dark Brown Rabbit Strips
■1mm Foam
■3mm Foam
■Red Stick-On Eyes
■Rubber Legs
■Spider Wire or Equivalent
■Red Flashabou
Attach your thread to the hook and tie in a folded piece of spider wire (or equivalent). It should be roughly the length of the hook and you will use this to put on the trailer hook after the fly is complete.
Cut two 1/8 wide pieces of 3mm foam and wrap them on each side of the hook. This will add bulk while making the fly ride higher.
Tie in the rabbit strip tail. I usually make it slightly longer than the spider wire loop. Pull back extra rabbit strip and put in the material holder on your vise.
Cut a piece of 1 mm black foam the width of the hook gap. Make the length twice the length of the hook. Then cut it as so.
Tie tapered section of the foam over the hook shank
Wrap the rabbit strip 1/3 of the way up the hook shank. Follow that by folding over the foam strip and tying off
Fold the foam and the rabbit strip back and attach two strands of rubber legs on each side another 1/3 of the way up the hook shank. I use legs that come affixed together for and then separate them at the end
Wrap the rest of the rabbit strip up to 1/8th of an inch before the eye. Tie off and cut excess.
Wrap in several strands of red flashabou and spread them to each side.
Tie off the foam right behind the eye.
Here is the only semi-difficult part of the fly. From the bottom, use a bodkin to weasel the thread between the rabbit strip as far back as you want the head to be. Pull back the foam and wrap it over the top. Pull the thread from the bottom back up to the eye. Whip finish, cut off and place a generous amount of flex cement to the whip finish knot from the bottom of the fly.
To finish the fly, pull up the tag end of foam and cut the ears to whatever shape you want. I usually cut them into triangles. Put some zap-a-gap on the eyes and affix them. Separate the strands of rubber legs and loop a stinger hook onto the back. I have found that looping the trailer hook facing upwards is better for a mouse patterns
Viola!
hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/Hatches/2010/03/17/count-chocula-mouse-by-michael-rowland/
