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A few weeks ago Joe Cermele had his mind blown mousing the Upper Delaware. It seems that while he knew mousing did work, it’s not something he had done a ton of. Something tells me he’s a convert… Mousing (the act of using an artificial mouse as fish food) is not for everyone. It’s a fairly low percentage game, requires patience, finding the right body of water, pattern and conditions. Most of the time that is.

While no expert, I on the other hand have played around with the little furry creatures a lot the past four or five years. Throwing them in pretty much every body of water I can think of for plenty of different species. Many times I abandon the “rules” on how you’re supposed to use mice. One thing for certain I can tell you is that they work many, many times when I thought there was no way they would, and that is a lot of fun. In bright sunlight, on two weights, in a tiny stream, for ten inch cutthroats. Situations like that… I’ve used mice on almost every sized river, creek, and trickle of water with success on all of them.

Just yesterday while fishing for fairly large smallmouth bass here in upstate New York in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains I landed a sizable fish. When I got it close to the boat it belched up an ENTIRE DEAD RAT. No joke… A rat. That was a first for me and got me thinking again about the mouse thing. I plan on going back to this same lake in a few days for an overnight stay and while I don’t have any rat patterns you can be sure I’ll be throwing something very sizable on top come nighttime.

While you’re out fishing this labor day weekend, do yourself a favor and throw a couple of rodents in your fly box. You’ll never know when they might work.