“The Hood Rat is my favorite fly because of the aggressive strikes you get, and it hardly ever gets refused by a trout. You can throw any other mouse pattern and not catch fish but put the Hood Rat on and they charge right after it.
I developed the Hood Rat 15 years ago on the Kanektok River and have slowly altered it until it was as natural as possible, not only to me, but to the fish most of all. It rides extremely high on the water emulating a mouse with foam to make it buoyant, deer hair to make it look like a real mouse and to give it a lifelike profile from underneath, and rabbit crosscut to bulk out the body of the fly.
It has become a favorite fly for many guides on the Kanektok because of how truly effective it is on the leopard bow, especially on skittish fish in side channels. The Hood Rat really is one of the best mouse patterns, period!”
- Signature Tyer Dan Armstrong
