Mr. Hankey

I had tied a half dozen of these before I arrived in Northern NH for the summer - all were either destroyed by aggressive strikes or broken off! I ordered a dozen from the Fly Shop as 'emergency replacement' and haven't been disappointed. This is a fabulous pattern for larger trout and smallmouth bass. Also caught a sizeable (18") landlocked salmon on one. The strikes are violent, even by smaller fish. This is a must-have fly to pull cross current or toss along a bank.

I recently ordered a number of the larger sized "Mr. Hankey" mouse flies. Instead of riding straight up, with the hook oriented to ride up (eye down), these flies were tied with the hook "canted" off to one side and often flat, which would certainly diminish success in hooking fish. I've had little success manually twisting the hooks to orient them to ride properly,

I started mousing for large rainbows in Kamchatka almost 20 years ago. For years I used the traditional patterns and tried the occasional new one as it came along. When I saw Mr Hankey I liked it immediately and I can’t wait to fish it as every year my buddies and I have a mouse off on big water. I especially like the absence of the large and heavy belly hook on the mouse being replaced by an extended tail hook that is curved upwards to encourage hookups in the upper mouth and which should eliminate the need to pause for a count or two before setting. This should also limit the harm done by the larger hook.