My spent wing hoppicator

[switch10 0]

 

I started tying this fly because I was sick of seeing fish come up and hit my indicator thinking it was some soft of mutant salmon egg or something. This is my version of the hoppicator. It is a mash-up of various hopper patterns that I tie, and it works great. If you have never seen a hoppicator before, It has mono loops tied in at the front and rear of the fly, which can be attached to your leader and easily adjusted just like an indicator.

 

Materials needed:

Hook: 3x shank dry fly hook, sizes #8-16.

Mono Loops: I used some 5x tippet for this example.

Thread: Black UTC 6/0

Body: Yellow foam

Wing: Black foam

Legs: Silli legs, and hopper legs. (You can see how to make these legs HERE)

Indicator: green Glo-bug yarn

 

 

Start by tying in a loop of mono at the hook eye. Make sure you make the loop big enough to find after you put foam over it.

 

Make another loop at the rear of the fly, at about the bend of the hook.

 

Whip finish, cut your thread, and cover this with super glue. You don't want a fish ripping the mono loops out.

 

Cut a strip of yellow foam. The width should be about the width of the hook gap, and the length should be just over 2x the length of the hook shank.

 

Poke a hole in the middle of the foam strip near one of the ends. You will be putting the eye of the hook, and the mono loop through this hole.

 

Re-start your thread near the back of the fly. Slip the eye of the hook, along with the mono loop, through the hole in the foam.

 

Poke another hole in the foam with the hook point, and slip it up over the shank, and back mono loop.

 

Fold the foam over the hook shank, leaving a slight tail, wrap two wraps of thread. A soft wrap, followed by a tight wrap.

 

Make a half wrap, which will bring you to the side of the hook shank. You can now hide your thread by between the top, and bottom pieces of foam, along the hook shank. Continue doing this to build segments.

 

Again, poke a hole in your foam to put the eye, and your mono loop through.

 

Tie it off on the bottom.

 

Cut a piece of black foam that looks like this.

 

Cut it so it looks like this.

 

Tie it in.

 

Tie your legs in one at a time. I strip the fibers off the leg where I'm going to tie it in, and then I flatten the stem with pliers so the leg doesn't rotate. Once they are tied in, you can trim the legs to size if you need to.

 

For the indicator, I use green Glo-bug yarn. The fish can't see this part, so make it whatever color you find most visible.

 

Tie it in, and trim it.

 

Tie in your silli legs on both sides.

 

To cover up the black thread on the thorax, I just dub some yellow dubbing onto the thread and cover the thread wraps.

[CoachBob 0]

Very clever application of the foam to get that shape.

I'm not a fan of hackle legs (they get beat up/eaten up too fast), but those are good looking.

[switch10 0]

Thanks Bob.

[SBPatt 0]

Cool hopper; looks like it'll float all day long. Only concern I have is that foam body seems to be crowding the gap; you ever consider a hump shank, like a Dai Riki 280 or TMC 2302?

 

 

 

I tie just about all my foam creations on them and find the hump helps

 

 

 

Regards,

Scott

[switch10 0]

Cool hopper; looks like it'll float all day long. Only concern I have is that foam body seems to be crowding the gap; you ever consider a hump shank, like a Dai Riki 280 or TMC 2302?

 

 

 

I tie just about all my foam creations on them and find the hump helps

 

 

 

Regards,

Scott

 

Those look great Scott! Yeah, my foam is definitely crowding the hook... I'm still working out exactly what hook to use. I've tried all sorts of streamer hooks as shown, 200R style hooks, and regular length shank dry fly hooks with an extended body. I just started using foam for the first time a few months ago just for this pattern. My old deer head hoppers don't seem to float as well as foam.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

Scott I tie a hoppicator on the dairiki #270 and they work great. Switch that pattern is great only thing is the rear loop needs to be on top of the hook shank other wise your tippit will slip letting your hopper slide all the way to your dropper if a fish takes the hopper here is a pic notice the rear loop

[mikechell 0]

I've never used the hopper/dropper set up before. Is there already a tutorial, or can someone please show how the mono loops allow placement of the hopper and keep it from sliding?

[switch10 0]

riffleriversteelheadslayer, I've tried putting the mono loop on the top and bottom, and it seems to slide regardless. It always slides to the bloodknot where my tippet starts... I'm probably doing something wrong, but here's how I do it.

 

I make a loop with my leader, and feed the loop through the front mono loop of the fly.

 

I then put the fly through the loop in my leader (just like you would use a "thingamabobber" indicator), and pull it tight.

 

Then, I take the tail end of the leader that I will be tying my dropper onto, and feed it through the mono loop in the back of the fly.

 

It does seem to slip though. Maybe feeding it through the back loop twice or more would help it from sliding?

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

when I do mine I run the loop in my tippit from the bottom of the fly up through the front loop pass the fly through the loop then pull the tag end through the loop in the rear from bottom to top

[switch10 0]

when I do mine I run the loop in my tippit from the bottom of the fly up through the front loop pass the fly through the loop then pull the tag end through the loop in the rear from bottom to top

 

Ahh I got it. That sounds like it will work much better.

[flytire 0]

i believe the loop system on Mikey Wiers Hopicator is tied on top of the hook shank

 

 

then a loop to loop connection at the hook eye

 

 

then one of the tag ends is passed through the loop at the bend and the dropper fly tied on

 

 

[switch10 0]

i believe the loop system on Mikey Wiers Hopicator is tied on top of the hook shank

 

 

then a loop to loop connection at the hook eye

 

 

then one of the tag ends is passed through the loop at the bend and the dropper fly tied on

 

 

 

This is the same setup as I use.

 

riffleriversteelheadslayer's idea of running the loop in your tippet through both loops in the fly, and then making a loop to loop connection seems like it would work better.

[switch10 0]

Cool hopper; looks like it'll float all day long. Only concern I have is that foam body seems to be crowding the gap; you ever consider a hump shank, like a Dai Riki 280 or TMC 2302?

 

 

 

I tie just about all my foam creations on them and find the hump helps

 

 

 

Regards,

Scott

 

 

I just picked some 2302's to try out. Thanks for the suggestion.