The Shrew Hatch

[Rip Tide]

“It became a side research project, something we did out of scientific curiosity,” Lisi says. “How often do these mammals end up in the water? How often do fish eat them? It turns out that every few years in the Wood River basin, trout key in on shrews.”

Big Gulp: How Often Do Trout and Grayling Eat Mammals? | Cool Green Science

http://blog.nature.org/science/2013/09/03/shrew-eating-trout/

 

[jpbfly]

Amazing...and very interesting...tahnks a lot for sharing Rip

 

[GrtLksMarlin]

Very cool to see, small sized deer hair mouse flies actually a staple fly for late night large Brown fishing around here, and a sure fire fly if the larger size for Bass and Pike.

B.E.F.

 

[mcnerney]

Rip: Interesting reading, thanks for sharing!

 

[qacwac]

I've fished them a few times with no luck. Wonder how much timing has to do with success.

 

[silver creek]

Royce Dam is a master fly tyer and winner of the 1994 FFF Buzz Buszek Award. One of his signature patterns is the arctic shrew.

http://www.fedflyfishers.org/Portals/0/FlyTyingGroup/FTGDocuments/Buszek/1994_RoyceDam.pdf

"Royce is known for many patterns he has designed over the years, including his Dam's Hopper, the Caribou Mouse and the Arctic Shrews - all of which use his technique of flaring deer hair without having to trim afterwards."

You can see that thee body of the shrew has not been trimmed. The hair has the natural taper of fur. And the head of the fly has the long pointed appearance of a shrew.

 

[itchmesir]

There's a really cool movie out there called "once in a blue moon" which documents fishing during a "mouse year"... Pretty good film.. I highly suggest it