Fishing Hoppers

[orangescud]

Does anyone like to fish hopper flies that sink a little below the water surface? I like to fish a dry hopper with a hopper that sinks slightly.

[ibookje]

Any hopper with deer/elk hair would get waterlogged after a while. Like a Dave’s Hopper or Letort Hopper

[Hellmtflies]

No, I don't care to fish hoppers under the surface. I like to see the trout's snout poke through the surface and engulf the fly. That said, I do like to fish the Salmonfly hatch like that. After the trout have been pounded by a zillion anglers with dries for a few days during that hatch fishing the "Cat Puke" pattern just under the surface is killer.

[GerardH]

I like mine to ride high on the surface, but I have to say I had a Dave's hopper that was just destroyed two weeks and it seemed to fish better as it deteriorated.

[Brooks]

No, I don't care to fish hoppers under the surface. I like to see the trout's snout poke through the surface and engulf the fly. That said, I do like to fish the Salmonfly hatch like that. After the trout have been pounded by a zillion anglers with dries for a few days during that hatch fishing the "Cat Puke" pattern just under the surface is killer.

Glad to see the "cat puke" get up-chucked here. I named that pattern when I worked for Rainy, years ago. It was originally a Christian Billard tube body pattern that Rainy modified. I told her, "I don't know why that pattern works so well, but you should call it a 'Cat Puke'. People will remember that name, and it looks like a fur ball that a cat would barf up on the porch". So she did.

A "sunken" pattern that I like even better, and is tied with natural materials, is the "Sunken Stone", from Blue Ribbon Flies (or at least that's the affiliation that I remember). It is rabbit dubbed, with rows of elk hair tied like a mohawk down its back. It isn't a sub-surface pattern, but it is such a low rider that it seems like it is underwater when you're trying to track it through its drift. Looks amazingly real.

A hopper tied the exact same way works really well, using pale tan or yellow rabbit for the body, and you can add a couple tied pheasant or turkey fiber legs, but you don't need to. Cool pattern tied with stuff that you can shoot!

[adrien schnee]

Hey Brooks, neat that you once worked for Rainy! Did you ever make it over here to Chiang Mai during that time to visit the tying operation?

[Brooks]

Adrien, no I didn't, but I always wanted to. Just for the food!

[scarlet>fire]

Thats funny- my brother and I joked all summer about fishing a hopper/hopper rig. One of the best hopper patterns for me is the Henry's Fork Hopper. It looks realistic on the surface but is prone to sinking easier than others. I like that versatility. Sometimes I let is stay sunk and fish it that way too. I have yet to fish a hopper/hopper, but it's on my list!

[PYochim]

I use a size 14 Stimulator for a hopper imitation. It works for me.

[prairieschooner]

I fish a local urban lake for bass; the hoppers are thick as crows. I've cast a million of them - foam, Dave's, et al - alone and with a dropper, and have yet to have one even get a sniff. I would have thought the fish would be hanging around the edges snapping them up, but no. Weird,

[DrLogik]

The only fish I've caught on hoppers are Bass and Bluegill, no Trout. I fish them dry, er, well, they sit in the surface tension. I have had good luck with ants in various forms for Trout though.

[Hsimmons]

I love fishing hoppers for trout early in the summer when they first appear along the river banks and the fish slam them with abandon. But later in the year it seems trout either get more wary of imitations, or actually develop a dislike of dealing with a mouthful of big kicking legs. I have had many experiences where trout would seemingly attack my hopper with gusto but not get hooked. Finally tail hooking one convinced me that the trout were trying to stun or kill the hopper with a smack from their tail before actually eating it. I also think that alternatively they smack 'em hard with their mouth for the same purpose and then open up and let them go to see if they are dead before they come back to eat them. In those situations I've often had much better luck with fishing a drowned hopper well under the surface. For patterns, I much prefer a parachute hopper with a ribbed poly yarn body as opposed to foam, that sits well into the surface film and that also "drowns" easily. And I believe realistic rubber legs are important.

[billems]

Hopper fishing has it's own appeal. It's not a numbers game, at least to me it isn't. I look for deep pools with sweepers and overhanging branches. I just cast it out there and let it sit (in slow water). Then I give it a twitch. When all goes according to plan, the attack just about sucks your breath away. I never fish hoppers untiil late in the season. But I enjoy it, and catch some of the bigger fish up on top. I like the Letort Hopper and the AK Hopper, which is simply a Letort hopper with a brown hackle wound around the abdomen.

[baughb]

I love fishing hoppers mostly because of the beautiful takes.
Rainy's hoppers, Morrish Hoppers, and a yellow and brown sharpie in my pocket covers most situations for me.

Early season tiny, green, hoppers were fun for me this year in Picabo.

[JohnMD1022]

Any hopper with deer/elk hair would get waterlogged after a while. Like a Dave’s Hopper or Letort Hopper

Article of Arrick’s Fly Shop in West Yellowstone once tied me a dozen LeTort Hoppers with a yellow foam cylinder body.

They did not sink.

I believe I still have a couple that I saved as examples.

[GerardH]

I only fish Schroeder's parachute and Dave's hopper patterns and I don't think it matters too much -- they're generally in tatters before they won't float. On the streams I fish anyway, the fish usually slam the fly almost the moment it hits the surface, there's generally not too much of a drift.

[PYochim]

This was not a good year for me when it came to fishing terrestrials. A few on beetles and ants but none on hoppers.

[billems]

Some of my most exciting takes have been off a hopper in the fall. My fave setup is just a #14 Letort Hopper, Muddler, or Stimulator plopped onto some slack water near a fallen tree. I dig the explosion.

[Brooks]

Some of my most exciting takes have been off a hopper in the fall. My fave setup is just a #14 Letort Hopper, Muddler, or Stimulator plopped onto some slack water near a fallen tree. I dig the explosion.

I love the utility of a sparsely tied un-weighted muddler!

[j.robillard]

My "hopper" is an orange #10 Stimulator. Amongst friends, I refer to it as my favorite bobber. I use it as a hopper, bobber and/or indicator. I use orange poly yarn for the body and head. They float well, even after hours of fishing, and I can see them from afar. I like to add a dab of head cement at the tail end, the juncture where the wing meets the body and at the head. I have some that last an entire season. I'll just wash the slime off with some dish soap when I get home. They're not too big for a pretty 10 inch trout to take one, they're big enough to coax the odd large specimen and they're big enough to support a size 12-16 beaded hair's ear nymph, if I'm prospecting.

Back to the OP questions, I'll fish the one stimulator for an entire day. Half the time it's sitting low in the film because it's waterlogged, or has fish slime on it. It's only observation, but I believe I get a few more takes after I've dried and powdered it, and it's riding higher. That said, if I'm approaching a pool with a barely floating one on my line, I can cast into the pool, and pop it under the surface imitating a struggling bait fish, or sinking terrestrial. That can trigger a response.

-Jeremy.