Posts tagged ‘Hopper Patterns’
Not much has changed on local rivers from last week’s fishing report and thankfully the cooler temperatures and bits of rainfall are keeping the river in good shape – both in terms of levels and more importantly, in terms of temperatures – rare going into August.
Brown on the Boardman
The Upper Manistee is finally getting good numbers of Tricos in the mid-morning as the temps warm up. Spinner falls provide more than just small fish – look carefully for bigger ones lightly sipping the water – you won’t hear the gulp. Afternoons and evenings are still presenting decent numbers of Isonycias, Light Cahills, and Little Yellow Sallies – on the cloudy and/or cooler days, look for BWOs. This week’s heat has got some hoppers even more active on the banks and fish are looking for rubber legs and foam – cast hopper imitations of all sizes until you crack the code for the day also mixing up the presentation: twitching, skating, popping, dead drifting. Everyday it is different. Streamer fishing on the cloudy days is starting to get more notice now that the heavy hatches are no longer providing a large dinner each night.
The Boardman is fishing well with Tricos in the morning and Terrestrials in the afternoon. Smaller hoppers fished along the many grassy banks and sunken logs can give up a nice fish this time of year so don’t give up and mix up your patterns until you find success. Caddis are sporadically coming off in the afternoons and evenings as are BWOs when it’s cloudy. While the Gray Drakes are gone, don’t hesitate to fish an Adams or Gray Drake pattern when searching for a riser.
The Lower Manistee continues to remain cool and as such trout continue to be the primary target. Look for small caddis and wet flies to take fish on top and those nymphing the better seams, runs and holes can do well with smaller Pheasant Tails and caddis emergers. Streamer fishing is still bringing some trout to hand as well as smallmouth bass. The cooler temps that are keeping the trout around are what’s keeping the bigger numbers of smallmouth bass away – look for heat to change things.
Ted Kraimer is a professional guide and fly tier, owner of Current Works Guide Service, and field editor for True|North|Trout. His fishing reports will continue to appear in T|N|T and on his website.
Stumble Upon
Del.icio.us
Buzz
The following is the last installment in T|N|T’s four-part series on tying and fishing hopper flies, and on the the joys of Michigan midsummer trout fishing. Bryon Anderson will be back in the near future with another entertaining series.
The Crystal-Butt Hopper
Fly tiers are funny about patterns. On one end of the spectrum are strict purists who stick to the tried-and-true classics, insisting on adherence to the original pattern and all-natural materials, and on the opposite end are those who seem born to innovate—people who see everything from cat hair to fingernail clippings as potential pattern ingredients.
Harrison Steeves, a former professor of biological sciences at Virginia Tech and contract tier for Umpqua Feather Merchants, is no stranger to innovation, as evidenced by his many signature patterns that marry natural and non-traditional materials, and that also happen to catch the bejeezus out of trout. Among his inspired creations are the Steves’ Firefly, the TransparAnt, and this week’s grasshopper pattern, the Crystal-Butt Hopper.
This is a great pattern to have in your box in late summer, near the end of hopper season, when the trout—especially those in streams that get lots of pressure—may have gotten wise to the more traditional patterns by seeing so many of them. It seems to still say “hopper” to educated fish in a way that’s just different enough to re-pique their interest. I have had large trout follow, inspect, and refuse two or three flies that looked way more like a real hopper to me, only to blow up on a Crystal-Butt the instant it touched the water.
Keep a few Crystal Butt Hoppers tucked into a corner of your terrestrials box as an insurance policy for those wise old lunkers who think they’ve seen everything…you’ll both be surprised at how well it works.
The Crystal-Butt Hopper
Hook: 2x long dry fly, size 8-10
Thread: 6/0 Uni-Thread, color to match body
Tag: Krystal Flash (or equivalent)
Ribbing: Rod-winding thread, color to contrast with underbody.
Underbody: Yellow, light olive, or tan closed-cell foam (match colors to naturals in your area)
Shellback: Closed-cell foam, color to match naturals
Legs: Rubber or Silicone legs, color to complement body colors
Underwing: Elk Hair, natural
Overwing: Turkey quill segment, treated with artist’s fixative
Dubbing: Any dry fly dubbing, color to match or contrast with body
Head: 3/8” foam disc, cut from same foam as shellback
Eyes: Black permanent marker
Tying the Crystal-Butt Hopper
1. Start thread just behind the eye, wind to the bend. Tie in 10 to 12 strands of flash at the bend so that it projects rearward. Trim to 3/8” length.
2. Trim the end of a 3/16”-1/4” wide strip of shellback foam to a point and tie in directly over the tail tie-down.
3. Trim the end of a 1/8” strip of underbody foam to a point and tie-in directly over the shellback tie-down.
4. Tie-in ribbing material just ahead of body tie-down. Wind thread forward to a point one hook-gap width behind the eye.
Step #5
5. Wind the underbody foam forward to the thread, tie-off and trim. Wind ribbing forward to the same point, tie-off and trim.
6. Wind thread forward 2 to 3 turns ahead of body/ribbing tie-down. Cut a strand of rubber leg material about 1 ½ times the length of the shank and tie-in by its center. Pull one-half to each side of the body and wind thread rearward to the body tie-down—legs should protrude rearward at about a 45° angle from the body, as shown in the photo.
7. Cut and stack a small bunch of elk hair, and tie it in directly over the body tie-down. The tips of the hairs should be even with the rear of the bend.
Step #8
8. Tie-in a hook-gap width section of turkey quill directly over the underwing tie-down. Cover the butts of the underwing and overwing completely with thread, then wind the thread forward to the eye.
9. Apply dubbing to the thread and dub rearward, building up dubbing to the circumference of the body. Leave a gap of about 1/16” between the dubbing and the body/wing tie-down.
10. Tie-in the foam head disc over the bare thread between the dubbing and the body/wing tie-down, with 2/3 of the disc toward the rear of the fly, and 1/3 toward the eye. Secure with 6 to 8 turns of thread. Whip finish and cut thread. Take a moment to admire the shape of the fly. Silently congratulate yourself on a job – done.
11. Add eyes on the edge of the foam disc with black permanent marker.
The following is the third in T|N|T’s four-part series on tying and fishing hopper flies, and on the the joys of Michigan midsummer trout fishing. Look for the last installment early next week.
A.K.'s Hopper
If I could carry only one hopper pattern in my fly box, it would have to be A.K.’s Hopper. Like all of A.K. Best’s fly patterns, it is meticulously well-thought-out, with every detail born of years of careful observation on the water, which is undoubtedly why it works so well.
A former Michigander, A.K. is well-known to readers of John Gierach’s books and essays as Gierach’s long-time fishing companion on his angling adventures in Colorado (where they both reside) and across the U.S. Best is also a household name in the fly tying world, as he is one of the most highly-respected and commercially successful fly tiers in the country. His books include Production Fly Tying, A.K.’s Fly Box, and Dying and Bleaching Natural Fly Tying Materials. He has also done a number of excellent instructional tying videos.
According to A.K., his hopper is an amalgam of his favorite features from three other well-known fly patterns. The palmer-hackled body was borrowed from Joe’s Hopper (a/k/a the Michigan Hopper), the clean, simple wing design hails from Ed Shenk’s classic Letort Hopper, and the spun-and-clipped elk hair head comes from Dave Whitlock’s Dave’s Hopper. The result is a high-floating, durable, relatively easy-to-tie fly that rarely fails to ring the midsummer trout’s dinner bell.
A.K.’s Hopper
Hook: Standard dry fly, size 8-10
Thread: 6/0 Uni-Thread, color to match body
Body: Synthetic yarn (craft store variety)
Hackle: Brown dry fly hackle, 1-2 sizes smaller than hook size
Underwing: Turkey quill, treated with artist’s spray fixative
Overwing: Hard, shiny deer hair
Head: Elk hair, natural or bleached
Tying the A.K.’s Hopper
1. Start the thread one hook-gap width behind the eye and wind to the beginning of the bend. Wind back to the starting point. Tie in the end of the yarn at this point and once more wind to the bend, this time lashing the yarn to the shank as you go.
2. Twist the yarn tag to form a loop extending a hook-gap length beyond the bend. Take six or seven firm turns of thread at the bend to secure this body extension in place.
3. Tie in a brown dry fly hackle directly over the loop tie-down at the bend. Advance the thread to the starting point, then wind the yarn forward to that point, tie off and trim so that there is an abrupt “drop off” from the end of the thread to the hook shank. (This is important!)
Step #4
4. Spiral-wrap (i.e. palmer) the hackle forward in open turns and tie off directly over the yarn, maintaining the abrupt “drop off” transition from body to bare hook shank.
5. Clip a segment of turkey quill equal in width to the hook gap. Fold the segment lengthwise and snip the broad end at a 45° angle such that there is a “V” shaped notch in the end. Tie in the opposite end directly over the yarn and hackle tie-down.
6. Cut and stack a small bunch (10-12) of hard, shiny deer hair and tie in directly over the underwing tie-down. DO NOT TRIM THE HAIR BUTTS! They will be trimmed when you are shaping the spun-hair head.
7. Cut, stack, and clip the tips from a small bunch of elk hair. Spin and pack with the butts facing toward the rear of the hook. Repeat this process with a second bunch, again with butts to the rear. Tie in a third (and final) bunch with butts facing forward. Whip finish and cut thread.
Step #7
8. Using a razor blade or scissors, shape the head. Trim the bottom flat (careful not to cut off hackles!), then each side. Trim the top at a slight angle as shown in the photo. With this cut you will also trim the butts of the overwing hairs, which were left in place to prevent you from accidentally cutting off the underwing itself. Neat, eh?
“Sometimes the stream ran through an open meadow, and in the dry grass I would catch grasshoppers and use them for bait and sometimes I would catch grasshoppers and toss them into the stream and watch them float along swimming on the stream and circling on the surface as the current took them and then disappear as a trout rose…” – Ernest Hemingway, “Now I Lay Me”
The Parahopper
When I think of hopper fishing, I tend to picture a certain set of “ideal” conditions in my head: a stream with moderate to fast current flowing through a wide-open meadow full of tall grass that overhangs the stream banks on a warm summer afternoon, with occasional gusting winds to knock the hoppers into the water where the trout are waiting for them…maybe a couple of cows grazing in the meadow for that look of pastoral splendor…something like that.
The Madam X, featured in last week’s installment, is an ideal pattern for such conditions, as it is designed to simply give the impression of movement—fluttering wings, flailing legs, etc.—when viewed through a lens of fast, choppy water.
What happens, though, when the trout are in calm, clear water, and there isn’t enough wind to ruffle the surface, but there are still hoppers about? From a fish’s point of view, when a hopper falls onto the water’s surface in these conditions, it no longer appears as just a blur of motion, but an actual insect with some very distinct parts—an elongated body that rides flush in the surface film, a flat wing folded tent-style over the body and, perhaps most notably, two very long, distinctly jointed legs. In this situation a bushy attractor pattern like the Madam X will usually draw a refusal, and will sometimes actually put the fish down.
When conditions demand a more realistic imitation, I reach for a Parachute Hopper. There certainly are some snazzier patterns in the fly shop bins that may look more like the real thing to a fisherman, but I like the simple Parachute Hopper because it accurately represents those features of the natural insect that are most prominent to a fish gazing up through the water column (body, wing profile, and rear legs).
My version of the fly is a very slight variation on the well-known Rainy’s Parachute Hopper. Where the original pattern calls for calf tail hair for the upright wing “post”, I use instead a synthetic material called Hi-Vis. It mounts much more easily than the bulky, slippery calf tail, and it is exponentially easier to handle when winding the parachute hackle.
The only potentially difficult part of the Parachute Hopper is the jointed legs, which are created by tying a knot in a small bunch of pheasant tail fibers. You can do this by hand, or you can save lots of time and possibly your sanity by either purchasing one of the specialty tools (such as Rainy’s E-Z Hopper Leg Tool) that are made just for this application, or by simply using the pre-knotted legs that are available from many fly shops and online retailers.
Many fly tiers complain that it is difficult to keep the legs from splaying out to the sides when they are mounted. I have an easy solution to this problem: let them. The neat upright legs so often seen in photos of this pattern look right to us because that’s how we most often see real hoppers: with their rear legs poised to jump. When a natural hopper falls into the water, however, its powerful “hopping legs” kick and flail out to its sides as it tries to right its body on the surface and/or swim to safety, so why not let your fly’s legs imitate what the trout actually see?
The Parahopper
Hook: Standard dry fly, size 8
Thread: 6/0 tying thread, color to match
Body: Synthetic yarn
Wing: Mottled turkey
Legs: 4 to 5 pheasant tail fibers (or prepared legs)
Wing Post: Hi-Viz (or similar)
Hackle: Grizzly
This simple but effective fly can be tied in any combination of colors you choose—I recommend catching a couple of the naturals living along the banks of your favorite stream and taking them home to copy at the bench. Carry a few in your terrestrial box for those times when trout disdain the flashier attractor patterns, but you know they still want a hopper. You won’t be disappointed.
Tying the Parachute Hopper
- Tie-in 6/0 tying thread, and then tie-in yarn at the hook bend. Advance thread 2/3 of the way up the shank, then cover the rear 2/3 of the shank with yarn and tie-off material to form an attractive segmented body. Do not cut yarn.
- Cut a segment that is equal in width to the hook gap from a turkey tail feather that has been prepared with cement or spray fixative. Trim the end of the segment to a rounded point, and tie-in the segment by its other end.
Step #3
- Prepare the hopper’s legs with an appropriate tool. Or select and prepare the purchased legs in order to make an appropriate set. Or drive yourself absolutely mad by making your own. In any event, tie-in one leg on either side of the body.Don’t get all worked-up about it if it isn’t absolutely perfect as the fish do not care.
- Cover wing and leg butts with yarn. This will give the fly a nice, finished look.
- Tie-in a length of synthetic wing post material on top of the shank. Tug the ends of the material until perpendicular to the shank; secure in this position using “x” wraps.
Step #6
- Tug the ends of the post material straight up above the shank. Take several turns of thread around their base, just above the shank, effectively combining the two ends into a solid wing post.
- Select and prepare an appropriate grizzly hackle for the purposes of tying a parachute collar. Tie-in the grizzly hackle feather at the base of the wing post.
- Wrap yarn to just in front of the wing post. Secure yarn and trim the tag end.
- Wrap the hackle counterclockwise around the wing post, starting at the top of the thread wraps securing the post and wrapping downward to the hook shank. Tie-off and trim the hackle.
- Make a neat thread head. Secure with whip finish and head cement.
The Madam X
The following is the first in T|N|T’s four-part series on tying and fishing hopper flies, and on the the joys of Michigan midsummer trout fishing. Look for more installments in upcoming days.
With the arrival of midsummer and the “dog days” that follow comes one of the best opportunities of the season to catch a trophy size trout on a dry fly. No, I am not speaking of the celebrated “Hex” (Hexagenia Limbata) or Giant Michigan Mayfly that has recently begun its annual emergence on our northern rivers, but a much less famous (though no less tempting) morsel for the hungry trout in search of a substantial meal: the lowly grasshopper.
Grasshoppers, along with ants, crickets, beetles, spiders and various other terrestrial insects, are active in the grasses and trees lining the banks of Michigan trout streams beginning in early spring, and furnish easy calories for trout when they fall or are blown by the wind into the water. Hoppers become of greatest interest to trout in the hottest, driest weather of the year, from mid-July through mid-September. By this time, the hoppers born in the spring have had all season to mature, growing to as much as two inches in length.
Hoppers crawl up onto blades of grass in the early morning and wait for the sun to warm their bodies. They typically start moving around noon and remain active, flying from place to place to feed throughout the afternoon, which means that the best time to try your hopper flies is right through the heat of the day. Look for deeply undercut banks with tall overhanging grass on the banks above them. Hopper flies should be cast as close to these banks as possible, and should land with a bit of a “splat”, as this imitates the plight of the natural hoppers that get knocked or blown into the water. If a fish is there and looking up, the response will be near instantaneous, and the fisherman may get a nice surprise, for even the largest trout will regularly attack a hopper presented in this manner.
Hopper flies should be cast as close to these banks as possible, and should land with a bit of a “splat”, as this imitates the plight of the natural hoppers that get knocked or blown into the water. If a fish is there and looking up, the response will be near instantaneous, and the fisherman may get a nice surprise, for even the largest trout will regularly attack a hopper presented in this manner.
Hopper fishing is not nearly the technical business that hatch-matching can be, but the well-prepared angler will nevertheless want to carry several different hoppers for various conditions. Accordingly, this article is the first in a series, each of which will feature a different hopper pattern. These flies are fun to tie and an absolute blast to fish—their only possible downside is that they may keep you so busy catching fish all day that you’re all worn out before the evening rise even starts, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take…aren’t you?
Madam X
Hook: Standard dry fly, size 8 to 12
Thread: 6/0, olive
Tail: Elk hair, natural
Body: Olive dry fly dubbing
Underwing: Elk hair, natural
Head/Overwing: Elk hair, natural
Tying Instructions:
1. Start the thread about 1/8” behind the hook eye and wrap to the hook bend.
2. Cut and stack a small clump of elk hair. Tie it in at the bend, with the hair tips rearward, protruding about half a hook-gap width past the bend. Bind the hair butts along the length of the rear half of the hook shank. Clip the butts at the halfway mark and return the thread to the bend.
3. Apply dubbing uniformly over the underbody.
Step #4
4. Cut and stack another clump of elk hair, roughly 1 ½ times the diameter of the clump you used for the tail. Tie in this clump so that its tips are even with the tips of the tail hairs. Clip the hair butts and bind them securely. Apply cement to the thread wraps, then advance the thread to a point just behind the hook eye.
Step #5
5. Cut and stack a third clump of elk hair about 1 ½ times the diameter of the clump used for the underwing. Measure and cut the hairs to a length that is equal to the length of the hook shank. Tie the clump in just behind the hook eye with its tips facing forward—that is, projecting out past the hook eye. Bind the butts very firmly! Leave the thread hanging at the point where you tied in the underwing when you finish this step.
6. Grasp the entire clump of hair and pull it back toward the rear of the hook. Pinch the hairs at the point where your thread is hanging and bind them very firmly to create the bulbous head and flared overwing.
7. Tie in two lengths of rubber leg material on either side of the thread collar to create the “X” legs that give this pattern its name. Whip finish and treat the thread collar with head cement.
