Foam hopper flies – do you fish em?
- This topic has 22 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated Jul 23, 2010 at 4:35 pm by
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Hopper season is coming up and I have been thinking of tying some foam patterns. Usually I prefer natural materials but these big foam hoppers are durable and easy to tie. I have lots of saltwater and bass foam flies/patterns but haven’t done much with the “hoppers”.
So . . . Do you fish foam hoppers? What are your favorite patterns?
Neal,
I fished a pretty amazing Stonefly hatch on the lower Gardner River over the last week — at least 14 hours on a pretty rough and tumble freestone stream over the course of 3 trips into YNP this last week. In total I suspect over 100 fish were caught. I used only three foam hopper flies (#8) during the entire time. Except for the one I lost on a tree, the other two are still fishable. They float, they can be seen, and if tied right are nearly indestructable. I’ll post a picture or two when I return from this road trip.
PS Hopper season is here, the benches above the Gardner are alive with adults of all sizes.
Neal,
I am partial to my hopper pattern and I love throwing that thing. I have been throwing it since May. Foam flies are very durable and float really well. I treat all my dries, including foam hoppers with water shed. It helps to keep them drier longer, espically the hair and any synthetic materials. The Hopper Juan will be avaliable commercially next year. To bad I missed this year! i can also support a heavy dropper if needed. I can drop tungsten droppers off of this thing and be ok. If things get to rough, I might have to drop the weight down a bit, but that rarely happens. Tie some up and fish them. You wont be dissappointed.
LOL Juan – Your Hopper Juan pattern is what got me thinking about tying some foam. BTW, your HD video tutorial at hopperjuan.blogspot.com is AWESOME!
What is water shed?
Neal, while there maybe some hoppers still around the 1 st week of September, you will, almost certainly, need a #14 black foam beetle.
Mike – I will be in Bozeman the first week of September. What patterns should I tie to fill a box?
Pretty much depends on where and how you want to fish.
Rainy’s Grand Hopper (http://www.rainysflies.com/siteassist_images/flies/480/0505.jpg) is one of my absolute favorites. Simple and yet deadly effective. That being said, it’s not great at holding up droppers, especially larger droppers.
In Yellowstone, I like to fish a pattern with some pink in it. For some reason pink works great in the park. Trixie the Hooker (googling this one at work was a little risky, but I found a picture here: http://www.dreamdriftflies.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=10&products_id=2011&osCsid=266e90d738d2965e9fe1d507603481c4) or the Western Lady Hopper (http://www.dreamdriftflies.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=10&products_id=2014&osCsid=266e90d738d2965e9fe1d507603481c4) are two of my favorites.
If you want to hold up real heavy droppers, try tying up some patterns with a larger wing. A real thick deer hair or synthetic wing will hold up very heavy droppers. Your hopper will sit lower in the water, but that thick wing will hold it up. Something like Idylwilde’s Chubby Chernobyl works well in this situation (http://www.idylwilde.com/html/fly_gallery.php?category_id=1&subcat_id=30&page_num=2). Tie it with a really thick wing, cover it in floatant, and that thing will stay up all day.
The Hopper Juan is sweet, as is the Charlie Boy hopper, which I especially like in the smaller sizes. David Darnell tied up some great hoppers and posted some pics a while back (http://www.itinerantangler.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?num=1245733681/0). I can attest that this pattern works great.
There is definitely no shortage of options when it comes to good hopper patterns. Hopefully some of the above will give you some ideas to work with.
Tim
LOL Juan – Your Hopper Juan pattern is what got me thinking about tying some foam. BTW, your HD video tutorial at hopperjuan.blogspot.com is AWESOME!
What is water shed?
Thanks man. Here is a photo of Water Shed.
The only thing about this product is that you have to let dry for 24 hours.
I second and third the Juan…. Tied three dozen tonight for my upcoming MT trip….
WOW Dave, three dozen hoppers = 36
assuming you tied after work at about 4 hours give or take, that is an average of 6.66 minutes per fly.
Well here’s a start. The ones on the left are rough drafts. The ones on the right are old purchased flies already in the box. I think the foam cutters will be a good investment – it is a pain to cut each fly by hand.
Photo from the iPhone 4
Neil,
Tying with foam is addictive. I guess because it’s so easy to use and the learning curve is pretty short.
Don’t forget the easy-to-tie Black Foam Ants!
I’m partiall to the Chaos Hopper. It doesn’t get much easier that this:
http://www.mwflytying.com/patterns/chaos.html
Niel, I posted in the wrong thread eariler, sorry
Black foam beetles are killer on the Madison and small foam ants are too. Both are easy to tie as well.
Chernobyl’s are my personal favorite, but I will be trying some Hopper Juan’s.
Fishing hoppers to me is much like fishing streamers. Original patterns or colors get more reaction strikes, especially later in the season when big fish have seen lots of flies.
Partially submerged hoppers seem to do really well also
Fellas,
If you want some got hoppers stickers, shoot me an e-mail with your address at juan@anglerscovey.com and I’ll get you some.
No foam but never leave home without a power ant. Color combinations are endless but I like to stick to the black body, white legs, white wing, and grizzly hackle. Make the legs extra long – longer than the photo.
Simple but effective.
I’m sure you could add foam to this thing in some way.
I fish a lot of foam hoppers in the summer. I use close celled foam or rainy’s foam tube strands. Never have them sink from being water logged. I have not noticed an preference by fish for color or amount of detail. A simple matchstick piece of foam with rubber legs works as much as a segmented body piece of foam with articulated legs.
The bigger the fly the larger the dropper. I think the biggest dropper I tie is on a size 10 hook. Usually a damsel or bead head hares ear.
As Whitlock said, Hoppertunity
Neil,
Here’s one of the two bugs that survived the Gardner.
Simple Tie: Tail-Deer hair clump with a bit of flash, single strip of foam, dubbed body of ice dub, deer hair wing with foam folded back, legs, and hi-vis orange para post. Indistructable and effective.
Hi Vis orange para post is very useful for us old guys on rough water like the Gardner.
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