Grasshopper Help

[xvigauge 0]

Looking for some recipes for a grasshopper dry fly that is fairly easy to tie. What are some productive patterns and what are your favorite patterns and sizes?

Joe

[Noahguide 0]

Kelly Gallops snowshoe hopper.

[mikechell 0]

If you're not strictly traditional, this foam katydid pattern works well for me.

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=82284&hl=katydid

[chugbug27 0]

Charlie Boy is also fairly easy to tie.

 

https://charliesflyboxinc.com/portfolio-items/fly-box-template-73/

 

My current favorite, though, is not a dry fly, it's Allen McGee's soft hackle grasshopper. Not as easy a tie but not hard. Floats for about three seconds. Most of my takes on it happen within a few seconds after it sinks.... Page 164

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=KIQRDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA164&lpg=PA164&dq=allen+mcgee+wet+hopper&source=bl&ots=Pzs8xz-WoT&sig=ACfU3U1hWh5YY5S9Xv1mzsdR_hLIQxkkyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjhh7vZsaXjAhXntlkKHf5CBpYQ6AEwDXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=allen%20mcgee%20wet%20hopper&f=false

[Flicted 0]

I always liked Dave's Hopper. I take two hackles and clip the barbules to about 1/8" and then knot them for the knees on the larger hoppers.

[Philly 0]

Most of the streams I fish are wooded, so you don't see a lot of grasshoppers. I found some plastic/rubber insect legs when I was going through my tying stuff. I had enough green legs to tie one hopper. It all craft foam, the hardest part is doing the two tone segmented body. I coated it with a light flex UV resin. It floats like a cork. I gave it to my niece and her husband as the streams in their area of Vermont have more grass around them. I have some black ones left, going to make up a couple of crickets.

 

 

 

[SilverCreek 0]

The best hopper pattern that I've fished is the Henry's Fork Hopper designed by Mike Lawson. If it works on the fussy rainbows of the Henry's Fork, it'll work most anywhere. Natural grasshoppers ride low in the water and some picky trout will not even take a floating hopper.

Foam patterns for hoppers, beetles, and ants have become increasingly popular. One problem is that they do not sink like a drowned terrestrial. Since foam patterns do catch fish, and they don't need repeated treatments with floating, fly fishers have recently gone more and more to foam patterns. However, some picky and large trout have learned that if they take only drowned terrestrials, they are naturals. Foam patterns will not fool these fish. A pattern that will ride in and under the film will.

My "secret weapon" at these times is the Henry's Fork Hopper that Mike Lawson developed to catch the tough trout of the Henry's Fork. It is a low floater and when tied in white or pale elk/deer hair. I can color it to match the local hoppers.

The HFH saved my day on Poindexter Spring Creek. Hoppers were everywhere but a feeding brown trout would not take a Schroeder's Parachute Hopper, a Whitlock Hopper, or a Joe's hopper. I even crawled on the bank and threw a real hopper to the fish, and it was ignored. But this fish and others that day confidently took a HFH.

One tip on using this fly - Hoppers come in many different colors and shades. If you carry a few permanent art markers in green, brown and yellow; you can match just about any real hopper. Tie your HFH using white hair just like the pattern below and color it with a marking pen.

Tying instructions below, but knot the legs to get a more realistic angle to the rubber legs as in the pattern above:

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/intermediate/part32.php

If you fish only foam hoppers, do yourself a favor and carry a few HFHs for those days when that foam pattern just can't seem to fool that one special fish.

 

[SILKHDH 0]

This pattern is called "Simple Hopper" . You can change up the colors to better match the natural hoppers near where you fish. I tie in all-green and brown foam with light tan or yellow dubbing.

[SilverCreek 0]

The third mop fly on this post is the simplest hopper pattern I can Imagine.

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=88617

 

Another is the Madam X Hopper.

 

http://www.americanflyfishing.com/retail/common/tieit/pattern.asp

 

 

[Sandan 0]

 

The best hopper pattern that I've fished is the Henry's Fork Hopper designed by Mike Lawson. If it works on the fussy rainbows of the Henry's Fork, it'll work most anywhere. Natural grasshoppers ride low in the water and some picky trout will not even take a floating hopper.

 

 

Tying instructions below, but knot the legs to get a more realistic angle to the rubber legs as in the pattern above:

 

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/intermediate/part32.php

 

If you fish only foam hoppers, do yourself a favor and carry a few HFHs for those days when that foam pattern just can't seem to fool that one special fish.

 

SilverCreek,

You beat me to it. The HFH is a fantastic hopper. Here's another SBS on this site, http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=69918

[xvigauge 0]

Thanks guys. You have given me some food for thought regarding hoppers. I knew you guys would come through. BTW, has anyone ever used a small muddler minnow to mimic a hopper? They look more like hoppers to me than minnows.

Joe

[mikechell 0]

I think that's what happened with my first attempts at muddlers. When I started fishing with them, they were getting hit as soon as they hit the water. Of course, I was fishing from a boat, casting to overhanging brush and bank. I'm pretty sure the 'gills and bass were taking them as hoppers.

[Bruce Derington 0]

Should keep you busy for a minute

[DarrellP 0]

I have been using Skip Morris predator, or my sloppy version of it. Of course, blue gills aren't picky. I really like the soft hackle hopper listed above.