How To Tie a Deer Hair Mouse Fly Pattern (Flicker Tail) For Large Brown Trout

Warning! No Fish are Caught in this Video! This fly is extremely effective for huge trout.

The Deer Hair mouse is a very effective fly for Big brown trout. These are usually used night fishing but will also work occasionally during daylight. This is tied using the standard deer hair packing technique, but with a couple extra ingredients to make it displace a little more water. The other day for the first time I witnessed a mouse swimming in the water right next to me. I noticed that it made a lot of noise, it practically ran on top of the water. The sound it made reminded me of a buzzbait for bass. So I decided to tie this in order to replicate the natural flickering of a natural mouse in the water.

Deer Hair Mouse Ingredients

Deer body hair
Rabbit strip
Some sort of stiff vinyl material to give it front legs(see image)
1/0 or pretty large hook (whatever size you feel good about)

Rabbit Fur strip For the Tail of a Mouse Pattern for Fly fishing — Notice the cut in the rabbit strip. This will allow the tail to pulsate in the water and gather a little more attention from the large brown trout that will be watching.

Tying a tail on the deer hair mouse fly — Attach the tail to your Mouse Fly

I have cut the tail in this manner to give it a pulsating action similar to the way a twister tail grub works. This is just a thick strip of rabbit fur. Rabbit strips are some of the best materials to be used to give great action underwater. I use them a lot for streamers.

Attaching the deer hair

Cut a decent sized chunk from the hide
Lay it lengthwise over the hook
Do a couple loose wraps to secure it in place
Give it a hard wrap and it should flare
Push it the the back of the hook and repeat the process

Attach the Legs to your Deer Hair Mouse

Once you make it 3/4 of the way up the fly with your deer hair you should attach the legs. When the legs have been attached you can continue to pack on the deer hair. You will need to pack it all the way to the front of the hook, but you should leave a small gap at the front to make the whip finish or whatever manner you use to tie off your flies. A very common mistake with tying flies is to tie material too close the the eye of the hook. Leave that area open so you have room to work at the end.

The Leg material for the deer hair mouse — This is just a stiff plastic type material. Chances are you already have something like this at your house. It can be purchased at any craft store or most fly tying shops for around $1. Any stiff material will work. You want it stiff so that it will not move freely with the water, this will make the legs push more water while you are retrieving it and therefore attract more attention from trout.

Attach the legs to the deer hair mouse. — Attach the front legs in the manner shown here. Afterward, apply one more layer of deer hair to create the head of the fly.

Now for the Trimming

Trimming your deer hair mouse fly — You can leave the top with the extra deer hair on it, this will make your fly float a little bit better. It will also ensure that your fly is always right side up when it hits the water. One potential disadvantage to this is that it will be more wind resistant while casting.

Trimming your fly is the fun part, its a lot like sculpting. The best way to trim your fly is using a razor blade. This will allow for even edges. Its hard to get a uniformly shaped body using scissors. The main concern here should be to make a flat surface on the bottom of the fly. This will serve 2 purposes

To give the fly a flat surface to sit on the water upright.
Also to expose the hook. You will need a gap between the deer hair and the hook point to successfully hook your fish. I have decided on this particular fly to trim the top and bottom of the fly to make it less wind resistant during casting. Notice I have also left whiskers on it to give it a little extra added appeal to the trout.