Mouse & Bucktail Lures

Mouse lures and bucktails at Charlie's Fishing: rat lures, bucktail jigs and Mustache combos for pike

Mouse lures and bucktails are the big, slow, water pushing lures of pike fishing. A bucktail jig has a head dressed with deer hair or synthetic fibres that flare and pulse on every turn of the handle; a mouse or rat lure is a big profile with a soft tail that crawls over weed and along the reeds, on the surface or just under it. Both keep working at a crawl, which is exactly where a shad or a crankbait goes dead, and both throw out the low frequency pressure waves that a big pike feels on its lateral line long before it sees the lure. On this page you find our floating and sinking mice and rats, the VMC Mustache bucktail heads and the ready to fish Mustache combos we assemble ourselves, the bucktail jigs with a blade or a clip head from BIM Tackle, the Frapp Rowdy Head, the Dobb Daddy Spin Fly, and every tail and stinger rig you need to build your own. We explain what each lure does, which tail fits which head, how to retrieve them and when in the season they shine, for pike first, and for catfish, zander and perch too. For the rest of our pike range start at Pike, Pike Softbaits and Topwaters.

Mouse and rat lures: on the surface and just under it

A rat lure is fished where you can see the take: over weed beds, through lily pads and along reed lines in summer and early autumn, when pike sit in the shallows and look up. The Savage Gear Mutant Rat 24 cm (68 g, slow sinking, 0.5 to 1.5 m) is our all day rat: a hard head with a polyester skirt and a rattle, a mounted soft tail and two 1/0 trebles on a stainless steel stinger. It stays alive at walking pace, so you can crawl it over the weed and give a follower time to make up its mind, and a chin ring takes extra weight when you want it deeper. The Savage Gear Mutant Rat 30 cm (125 g, slow sinking, 1 to 2 m, two 3/0 trebles) is the big profile for trophy pike on open water, for catfish and for the last metres beside the boat, where a slow heavy rat often turns a follower into a bite. Both tails are sold loose: the Savage Gear Mutant Rat Soft Loose Body 24 cm (42 g) and Savage Gear Mutant Rat Soft Loose Body 30 cm (85 g) replace a chewed tail, and on their own they rig weedless on a big EWG hook or a screw-in head and go straight into the pads and the reeds where a treble hooked rat would be stuck in seconds. For light tackle and small water there is the Illex MoMouse (42 mm body, 92 mm tail, 7 g, floating, 0 to 0.5 m, spare tail included): a compact floating mini wakebait with a small lip that wobbles with strong vibration. Fish it slowly for a clear wake along banks, stone groynes and tight corners for perch, pike, trout and chub, or speed it up with the rod tip low to trigger a follower. It is the only true floater on this page; the rats and the Mustache combos sink slowly. More surface lures in Topwaters, and the brand pages Savage Gear Lures and Illex.

Mustache combos: ready to fish bucktails with a soft tail

VMC describe the Mustache as a cross between a jig head and a bucktail, and a Mustache combo is that head with a soft tail and a VMC Pike Chain stinger already fitted, so you tie it on and fish. We put the Charlie's combos together ourselves from VMC heads, Catch With Care tails and Pike Chains. The Charlie's Mustache Mouse Combo (20 cm, 80 g) is the VMC Mustache Shallow with a CWC Double Tail and a Pike Chain M: a wide rolling twin tail behind a flat head that pushes a lot of water, built for polders and shallow bays to about a metre deep. The Charlie's Mustache Mouse Baby Combo (17 cm, 40 g wet) is the same idea on the lighter VMC Mustache Shallow Baby with a CWC Double Tail Mini, for a medium heavy rod and for days when a 20 cm profile is too much. The Charlie's VMC Mustache Mouse Combo Sinking (16 cm) is built on the sinking VMC Mustache Rig with a Double Tail Mini and a Pike Chain, in 11 g (33 g total, for water to about 2 m) and 20 g (43 g total, to about 4 m), so you can fish the same mouse along drop-offs and in canals and deeper lakes. The Charlie's Bucktail Baby Mustache Combo (20 cm, 70 g wet) swaps the twin tail for a Rapala Soft Peto paddle tail on the Mustache Shallow Baby with a Pike Chain M: a steady tail kick instead of a roll, for searching water fast. Rapala make two factory combos on the same platform: the Rapala Soft Peto Mustache 20 cm (68 g) is the Soft Peto 18 cm on the Mustache Shallow Baby with a Pike Chain M, and the Rapala Soft Peto Mustache 24 cm (126 g) is the Soft Peto 22 cm on the Mustache Shallow with a VMC Pike Chain Double, two trebles for the biggest profile; head and tail colours are matched, with UV Chartreuse and UV Orange for coloured water. The newest combo is the VMC Sharpshooter Combo (22.5 cm, 80 g): the slim, slow sinking VMC Sharpshooter head with a CWC Double Tail, a VMC 4551 1X Strong 3/0 hook and an extra eye for a weight or a Pike Chain, stable in wind and current where a flat Mustache head starts to swing. Read Rapala Soft Peto Mustache: two ready to fish pike combos and Rapala Soft Peto and Rapala Pre-Rigged Guide, and see Charlie's Fishing, VMC and Rapala.

Bucktail heads to build your own: VMC Mustache Shallow, Shallow Baby, Mustache Rig and Sharpshooter

Buy the head loose and you choose the tail, the colour and the depth yourself, and after a rough session you fit a fresh tail instead of replacing the whole lure. The VMC Mustache Shallow (22 g, about 35 g wet, runs to about 1 m) is the platform of our Mustache Mouse Combo: a wooden body with a zinc keel, so it is lead-free and runs stable, a flat head that pushes water, a bait screw for the tail and an extra eye for the stinger. It takes a CWC Double Tail, a Rapala Soft Peto 18 cm or Soft Olio 18 cm with a VMC Pike Chain Rig M or L, and it is the head for polders and shallow bays where a heavier bucktail digs into the weed. The VMC Mustache Shallow Baby (14 g, 22 g wet, to about 1 m) is the lighter version for a lighter rod, made for Charlie's Mustache Tails or a CWC Double Tail Mini with a Pike Chain. The VMC Mustache Rig is the sinking bucktail with a built-in screw, developed by VMC with pike guides for fishing big softbaits deeper than the Shallow goes: 11 g casts to about 2 m, 20 g to about 4 m, the lead-free zinc head keeps sinking slowly on the pause instead of dropping like a stone, and it also trolls well behind the boat. It comes without hooks, so fit a VMC Pike Chain Rig S as the stinger. The VMC Sharpshooter (38 g, 41 g in the UV colours, head 5.5 cm, 13 cm with the bucktail) is the slim member of the Mustache family: a lead-free ABS body with a hydrodynamic shape that swims stable and natural with little disturbance, slow sinking for a controlled presentation, and a VMC 4551 Round 1X Strong 3/0 hook already fitted. It is the head for current, wind and pressured, clear water, and for live sonar fishing where you want to put a bucktail on one fish and hold it there. From BIM Tackle, the BIM Tackle Shallow Cruiser Rig (10 cm, 35 g) is a super slow sinking shallow rig with a lead-free resin head, a 100% synthetic skirt and a screw-in system that holds a twin tail, a big curly tail or a shad straight; with an Illex John Weight clipped on it drops to the bottom for pelagic pike. The BIM Tackle Shallow Cruiser (23 cm, 96 g) is the same head with a VV Cruiser trailer and sharp trebles already fitted. Rigging is explained step by step in VMC Mustache Rig: four steps to rig this pike bucktail and VMC Sharpshooter: a versatile bucktail hardbait explained. More in VMC, BIM Tackle and Pelagic.

Tails and stingers for bucktails: double tails, curly tails, paddle tails and the VMC Pike Chain

The tail decides the action. A double tail rolls and kicks at the slowest speed, a curly tail pulses and keeps working when you speed up, and a paddle tail gives a steady kick with body roll. The CWC Double Tail (17 cm, 49 g) is the original twin tail of the Miuras Mouse, sold loose by Catch With Care in eleven colours; it fits the VMC Mustache Shallow and the Pike Chain Rig and is the tail on our Mustache Mouse Combo. The CWC Double Tail Mini (14.5 cm, 20 g) is the same tail scaled down for the Shallow Baby and the Mustache Rig, and Charlie's Mustache Tails (20 cm, two per pack) are our own white replacement tails for the Mustache Rig. From Rapala, the Rapala Soft Peto 18 cm (51 g) is the paddle tail with a wide kick and body roll, the Rapala Soft Otus 18 cm (55 g) keeps its side to side roll on the slowest retrieve and swims down on the pause, and the Rapala Soft Olio 18 cm (55 g) has two curly tails that spin at a crawl and flutter on the sink, the pick for pressured pike that ignore a paddle. The Frapp Double Croak 5.9" (15 cm) (26 g), Frapp Double Croak 6.5" (16.5 cm) (34.5 g) and Frapp Double Croak 7.9" (19 cm) (53 g) are twin tails with a bulky body for the Mustache Rig, the Mustache Shallow and the Shallow Cruiser Rig, and the two smaller sizes also catch zander. The Frapp Tricky Tail 8" (20 cm) (51.9 g) and Frapp Tricky Tail 10" (25 cm) (101 g) are big curly tails with an extended inner edge and a low centre of gravity, so they roll steadily at medium and high speed and on sharp jigging strokes; the 8" is the trailer on the Frapp Rowdy Head. The Nays double tails, Nays TWN 60 (15.2 cm, 34 g), Nays TWN 80 (20.3 cm, 74 g) and Nays TWN 100 (25.4 cm, 142 g), have two massive tails, a wide body and a central pintail, hand painted and tough, and the 80 and 100 are made for the shallow rig; the Nays curly tails, Nays GHST 80 (20.3 cm, 46 g), Nays GHST 100 (25.4 cm, 89 g) and Nays GHST 120 (30.4 cm, 142 g), have a slim body with low water resistance, so with a weight clipped on they go deep without losing the action. The BIM Tackle VV Cruiser (18 cm, 52 g) has a hook shaped curly tail that starts at the slightest movement and is made for the Shallow Cruiser head. To finish a rig you need the stinger: the VMC Pike Chain Rig is a chain of heavy barrel swivels and split rings with a VMC Hybrid 1X 2/0 treble, in S (7.5 cm, for the Double Tail Mini), M (9 cm, for the Soft Olio 18 cm and the Double Tail) and L (10.5 cm, for the Soft Peto 18 cm); the stinger holds the hook in the bait on the cast and pops out on the take, so the fight happens on the chain and the tail lasts fish after fish. The VMC Pike Chain Rig UV is the same rig with a UV Hybrid 1X 2/0 treble for coloured water. More tails in Curl Tails & Twister Tails and Pike Softbaits, stingers in Rigs & Stingers, clip-on weights in Weights, and the brands Catch With Care, Nays and Frapp.

Bucktail jigs with a blade or a clip head: BIM Tackle ChaCha Bait and Crazy Rabbit

BIM Tackle hand tie their bucktails from natural hair and synthetic fibres, which gives a lot of volume for a low wet weight, and they add something to the classic bucktail jig. The BIM Tackle ChaCha Bait (28 cm, 50 g, 60 g wet, sinks about 3 seconds per metre, two single hooks) is a chatterbait and a bucktail in one: the blade up front throws a hard vibration that predators pick up from a distance, the hair behind it breathes and pulses, and it fishes anywhere between 1 and 5 m, let down to the bottom or wound with the rod tip up over shallow structure. It is a lure for the slow days, cold water and pressured fish, and it works for pike, zander, perch and catfish. The BIM Tackle ChaCha Bait Junior (20 cm, 30 g, 35 g wet) is the all round size for pike and zander, the BIM Tackle ChaCha Bait Mini (20 cm, 18 g, 22 g wet, one single hook) is the pick for pressured water, perch and lighter rods, and the BIM Tackle ChaCha Bait Flashy (Junior 20 cm, 30 g; Regular 28 cm, 50 g) adds flash to the skirt for coloured water and low light. The Crazy Rabbit is a bucktail jig with an easy clip head system, so you change the head weight to fish shallow or deep, slow or fast, linear, vertical or sharpshooting on live sonar. The BIM Tackle Crazy Rabbit Shallow (29 cm, 33 g, 55 g wet, sinks about 3 seconds per metre) is for shallow bays, weed and warm water, the BIM Tackle Crazy Rabbit Deep (29 cm, 53 g, 75 g wet, sinks about 1 metre per second) gets down fast in deeper lakes and canals and jigs vertically, and the BIM Tackle Crazy Rabbit JNR (21 cm, 15 g, 27 g wet) is the small one with an extra blade for flash, for perch, black bass and sea bass as well as pike; all three have a trailer hook that takes a softbait instead of the tail, and the spare clip heads are in the BIM Tackle collection. Read our BIM Tackle ChaCha Bait review and BIM Tackle Crazy Rabbit: bucktail jig with interchangeable heads. For bladed lures without hair see Chatterbaits & Spinnerbaits and Vibration Baits.

Frapp Rowdy Head and Dobb Daddy Spin Fly: a noisy bucktail and a pike fly on spinning tackle

The Frapp Rowdy Head (24 cm, 70 g with the Tricky Tail 8" trailer) is a ready to fish bucktail with a bulky silicone head, a full natural bucktail with feathers and lurex and two 2/0 trebles on a free moving split ring system. The head has noise slits: water is forced through it and out sideways, which makes irregular pulses around the skirt and the trailer that pike pick up on the lateral line and that show up clearly on live sonar. Fished slowly it runs about a metre deep over weed beds and along reed beds; clip an Illex John Weight to the loop under the head and it runs deeper over drop-offs and on pelagic pike. The screw-in tail system takes the Tricky Tail 10" or another big softbait. Read Frapp Rowdy Head: a ready to fish bait pike can't ignore. The Dobb Daddy Spin Fly (28 cm, 15 g casting plug, about 28 g with cone head and hook rig) lets you cast a big pike fly on a normal spinning rod. Developed by Niklas Holmér at Fly-Dressing in Sweden, the plug, cone head and hook rig thread onto the leader in line, and the near neutral buoyancy means the fly hangs almost weightless, breathes on the pause and gives a following pike all the time it needs. Fish it with a slow steady wind, long pauses and small twitches along weed edges, reed beds and shallow bays; it is a strong choice for pressured pike in clear water and for the cold months when fish will not chase. Read Dobb Daddy Spin Fly: how to fish pike flies on spinning tackle, and see Frapp and Pelagic.

How to fish mouse lures and bucktails: retrieve, depth, season and tackle

The retrieve is slow and steady. Cast, let the lure sink to the depth you want, then wind just fast enough to feel the tail work and the hair pulse. Build in pauses: a Mustache or a Sharpshooter keeps sinking slowly on the stop and the tail flutters down, and that is where a following pike takes. Now and then speed up for two turns or lift the rod, so the hair flares and the tail kicks, and drop back to slow; that change of rhythm converts followers. A rat is fished even slower, crawled over the weed with the rod tip up so it wakes on the surface, and a floating MoMouse is walked and paused like any surface lure. Depth comes from the head: a Mustache Shallow, a Shallow Cruiser Rig or a Mutant Rat 24 cm stays in the top metre, a Mustache Rig 11 g or a ChaCha fishes 1 to 2 m, a Mustache Rig 20 g, a Crazy Rabbit Deep or any head with a John Weight clipped on goes to 4 m and more. Season: in spring, after the closed season, pike sit shallow and a Mustache Shallow combo or a Shallow Cruiser over the first weed is hard to beat; in summer the rats, the MoMouse and the shallow combos work the weed beds and reed lines at dawn and dusk; autumn is the big bucktail season, when pike feed hard and a 25 to 30 cm profile such as a Rowdy Head, a Nays TWN 100 or a Mutant Rat 30 cm selects the biggest fish; in winter slow everything down and go deeper with a Mustache Rig 20 g, a Crazy Rabbit Deep, a Sharpshooter with a weight or a Spin Fly fished with long pauses. Tackle: a combo of 70 to 140 g asks for a big bait rod of roughly 50 to 150 g casting weight and a baitcaster with 0.25 to 0.30 mm braid; the lighter heads and the MoMouse fish on a medium heavy spinning rod. Always fish them on a titanium or wire trace, because a pike that eats a lure this size eats all of it, and check the trace after every fish. Rods, reels and traces are in Rods and Reels and Lines and Leaders, spare trebles and weedless hooks in BKK Hooks and Hooks and Rigs.

Pike, catfish, zander and perch: which species take a bucktail or a mouse

Pike are the main target: every lure on this page was made for them, and the big slow profile is the reason a bucktail often outfishes a shad when pike are lazy, when the water is coloured or when the fish have seen every softbait in the box. Catfish hunt by lateral line and feel, and a bucktail that keeps pulsing at a crawl is exactly what they want: the Mutant Rat 30 cm on the surface on a warm summer night, the ChaCha Bait with its blade in deeper water, or a Mustache Mouse Combo crawled along a stone bank. Zander take the smaller, more vibrating ones: the ChaCha Bait Junior and Regular are built for pike and zander, the Nays GHST 80 and the Frapp Double Croak 5.9" and 6.5" catch heavy zander on a bucktail or on a jig head, and a Mustache Rig with a Double Croak fished slowly along a drop-off is a proven autumn rig. Perch and black bass want the small bucktails: the Crazy Rabbit JNR with its blade, the ChaCha Bait Mini on a lighter rod and the Illex MoMouse along a harbour wall or a canal bank. See Pike, Catfish, Zander, Perch and Black Bass.

Which mouse lure or bucktail for which situation

• Pike in polders and shallow bays, up to a metre deep: Charlie's Mustache Mouse Combo, VMC Mustache Shallow with a CWC Double Tail, BIM Tackle Shallow Cruiser.
• Lighter rod, smaller profile: Charlie's Mustache Mouse Baby Combo, Rapala Soft Peto Mustache 20 cm, ChaCha Bait Junior.
• Deeper water, canals and drop-offs: Charlie's VMC Mustache Mouse Combo Sinking 20 g, VMC Mustache Rig 20 g with a Double Croak, BIM Tackle Crazy Rabbit Deep.
• Weed beds, lily pads and reed lines in summer: Savage Gear Mutant Rat 24 cm, Mutant Rat Soft Loose Body rigged weedless, Frapp Rowdy Head fished slowly.
• Surface fishing on light tackle: Illex MoMouse.
• Coloured water and low light: Frapp Rowdy Head, BIM Tackle ChaCha Bait, Rapala Soft Peto Mustache in UV Chartreuse or UV Orange, VMC Pike Chain Rig UV.
• Wind, current and clear pressured water: VMC Sharpshooter or Sharpshooter Combo, Dobb Daddy Spin Fly.
• Pelagic and live sonar fishing: VMC Sharpshooter with a weight, BIM Tackle Crazy Rabbit Deep, Frapp Rowdy Head with a John Weight.
• Trophy pike in autumn: Rapala Soft Peto Mustache 24 cm, Nays TWN 100 or GHST 120 on a Mustache Shallow, Savage Gear Mutant Rat 30 cm.
• Catfish: Savage Gear Mutant Rat 30 cm, BIM Tackle ChaCha Bait, Charlie's Mustache Mouse Combo.
• Zander: BIM Tackle ChaCha Bait Junior, Nays GHST 80, Frapp Double Croak 5.9" on a VMC Mustache Rig.
• Perch and black bass: BIM Tackle Crazy Rabbit JNR, ChaCha Bait Mini, Illex MoMouse.
See also Pike, Catfish, Zander, Perch and Pelagic.

Why buy mouse lures and bucktails at Charlie's Fishing

We fish the polders, canals and lakes of the Dutch coast, where a slow bucktail over the first weed is the way to a big pike, and the Mustache combos on this page are the ones we put together ourselves from VMC heads, Catch With Care tails and VMC Pike Chains, next to the ready to fish bucktails and rats from BIM Tackle, Frapp, Savage Gear, Rapala and Dobb Daddy and every loose tail and stinger to rebuild them. Every order ships from our own stock in the Netherlands with fast delivery across Europe, and if you are not sure which head, tail or Pike Chain size goes together, ask us. For the other big pike lures see Jerkbaits, Swimbaits & Glidebaits and Pike Hardbaits, and for the hard lures that cover water faster, Crankbaits & Twitchbaits and Metal Jigs and Spoons.

What is the best bucktail for pike?

For most Dutch and European pike water a Mustache combo on the VMC Mustache Shallow with a CWC Double Tail is the first choice: it runs to about a metre, keeps rolling at a crawl and is ready to fish out of the pack. Go to a VMC Mustache Rig 20 g or a BIM Tackle Crazy Rabbit Deep for water deeper than two metres, a Frapp Rowdy Head or a BIM Tackle ChaCha Bait when the water is coloured, and a VMC Sharpshooter in wind, current and clear, pressured water.

Do mouse and rat lures float or sink?

Most of them sink slowly. The Savage Gear Mutant Rat and the Mustache Mouse combos are slow sinking, so you fish them just under the surface and can hold them in the strike zone, and crawl them on top with the rod tip up. The Illex MoMouse is the floating one and works right on the surface as a wakebait. For a rat that goes through the thickest weed, rig the Mutant Rat Soft Loose Body weedless on a big EWG hook.

Which VMC Pike Chain Rig size fits which tail?

Size S (7.5 cm) fits the CWC Double Tail Mini and other tails of about 14 to 17 cm, size M (9 cm) fits the CWC Double Tail and the Rapala Soft Olio 18 cm, and size L (10.5 cm) fits the Rapala Soft Peto 18 cm and longer tails. All three sizes combine with the VMC Mustache Shallow; the Mustache Rig takes a size S. The treble should sit about two thirds down the tail, so a short take still finds the hook.