My hopper floats on its side

[spinsheet 0]

I just tied a few Dave's Hoppers and couldn't wait to try them out and see how I did. I noticed that they are floating on their side and not in a prone position they way I imagine they should. I used a store bought one a while back and if I remember correctly that one floated prone. My guess is that this is not good.

 

Has anyone else had this issue? I'm wondering what I might be able to do to resolve this. From what I can see mine don't quite have the nicely compacted deer hair heads of the store bought ones and the hackle that's palmered around the body is slightly longer. Not much I can do about packing the deer hair tighter till I get better but I'll try trimming the hackle shorter and try again.

[thursthouse 0]

A picture of your fly would probably help

[FlaFly 0]

This is a pic of Dave's Hopper. If it floats on its side, it is either too heavy on top, or too floatable underneath. I've always wondered at the choice of white/yellow deer hair for the throat, since it is probably belly hair, which is floatable.

 

Let's see a pic of yours.

[spinsheet 0]

Here's a picture. Looks like I may have too much deer hair flared behind the head. I got this pattern from Skip Morris' Fly Tying Made Clear and Simple II.

[SilverCreek 0]

Too much material ELEVATED above the centerline of the hook AND the legs are not at the side and below the hook shank to act as pontoons.

 

Cut the hackle flat on the bottom, level with the hook shank and drop the fly into a glass of water. It will be lower but at least it will not be on its side.

 

Another less likely possibility is that the fly is aerodynamically unstable and it is twisting your leader so the twist in the leader turn the fly on its side as it tries to untwist after the cast. Show us the front view of the fly.

[mikechell 0]

Too much deer hair wing. I recently had the same problem with some foam body hoppers I tied. I trimmed the wing material off and the hoppers floated upright. The hook bend and point aren't enough "keel" to offset the weight of the wing.

The fish didn't mind the lack of a wing, they attacked it just fine.

[ditz2 0]

The fly is top heavy. Could be too much material on top of the hook. The material on top is too high. Hook is too light. Combinations of these.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I tie and fish a lot of A.K. Best's hoppers, which are basically Dave's Hoppers minus the knotted pheasant tail fiber legs. My thoughts on why your hopper is laying down on the job:

 

1. Your deer hair wing is almost upright, making your fly very top-heavy or "tippy". Try making it lay back more over the length of the body, like a caddis or stonefly wing. To facilitate this, you can trim the hackle on top of the fly flush with the hook shank. You can also take some loose thread turns over the hair behind your securing wraps once you've got it secured to the hook.

 

2. The tippiness problem is exacerbated by the palmer hackle stopping well back of the deer hair head & wing. It's possible you may have accidentally trimmed the hackle that should be in that gap off when you were trimming your deer hair head (speaking from experience here ). Whatever the reason, I would try to make sure that the hackle is palmered right up to where the first bunch of deer hair is tied in.

Another option would be to leave off the hackle enitrely. With the deer hair head and a body of either foam or synthetic yarn greased well with floatant, it would float just fine in all but the heaviest water.

[Tom Gibbons 0]

check out Charlie Craven's " Basic Fly Tying"

[tidewaterfly 0]

 

 

Too much deer hair wing. I recently had the same problem with some foam body hoppers I tied. I trimmed the wing material off and the hoppers floated upright.

 

Agree with the others & what Mike posted. I had a foam pattern I had purchased fall over on it's side & after trimming the hair on top it sat on the surface just fine. Nothing more than being top heavy.

[saltydancindave 0]

Bass will strike them all the same, it's just that the hook isn't heavy enough to sink the hook end while the deer hair should be trimmed flat on the bottom with the dubbing & shorter on the top if need be.