Fishing Forum

I live in tooele, and have been invaded by grasshoppers.
Back in florida and throughout the east, live crickets are the ticket for bluegills. I was wondering if anyone out here has tried grasshoppers on trout.
[signature]

are you kidding? Summer time grasshopper fishing is a staple for trout fishermen. Or, at least it should be. Being a trout fisherman that has never used grasshoppers is kind of like being a mechanic that has never used a wrench. That's basic stuff there...
[signature]

Well, then I will try to turn my infestation into a positive.

Do you use a weight and fish off the bottom, or a bobber?
[signature]

[cool]I have never used hoppers for trout in a lake before, but in streams, creeks or rivers, hoppers are DEADLY for trout. If you are going to baitfish for trout in the summer in moving water, there is nothing better than grasshopers that I've found. You want them to be as natural looking as possible, so I just put them on a small bait hook and drop it in a hole. No weight - you want it to float and look like it just fell in off a bush, etc... You will be amazed at how well they work. If there's fish in the area, you will notice IMEDIATE results...be prepared for a hard tremendous strike!

Sorry I can't help you on the lake part...
[signature]

Grasshoppers work great in lakes too. I like to float them. Just use a floating bubble or bobber. Watch for too much slack so that you can do an effective hook set. And yeah, be ready for a tremendous strike.
[signature]

Dude catch some and use them in a river they are killers for trout!!
[signature]

If you are fishing them live super glue them to your hook so they stay alive. sounds odd but trust me the trout will crush it!

If you are using them in a river make sure you turn the hook around so the shank of the hook is pointed to its butt. It allows them to float easier and appear more natural on our clear rivers.

not many guys use hoppers anymore and i havent seen a trout yet that wont eat one hehehe....
[signature]

OK, now we know how to catch the fish and even how to attach the hooks to the hoppers (super glue!?), but how do you go about catching grasshoppers (unless you really have an infestation that is overrunning you)? Most of the ones around my house are pretty lively. Chasing them down is a lot of work. Is there some secret, like catching them in the morning when they're cold and not as quick?
[signature]

When I walk toward the back half of my yard literally dozens of those stupid things start jumping. And I have a small yard. I must have several hundred in my yard right now.

I just used a butterfly net and hold it in front of me, and there are so many they jump in it.
[signature]

I'm going to try and hit the river/stream that runs through Springville today, armed with grasshoppers.

I'll post how I do!

Nate
[signature]

just get a gunny sack they jump and stick right to it if its ur yard hold it out and just kinda run around and when they hit the gunny sack the legs will stick to them ur sack will be covered with em if there alot of em.... pick em up fast they work themselves loose....
[signature]

Here's an idea. Fish with a fake one. They last longer

Foam, round rubber, etc. Fish aren't that smart.

Oh yeah, fish them on a fly rod.

One of my hottest bugs is a heavily weighted hopper imitation. Hydraulics do a number on all floaty things once in a while.
[signature]

Thanks for the ideas. I think I'm going to have just as much fun catching grasshoppers with butterfly nets, gunny sacks, etc. as I will have fishing. If I don't have any luck with the grasshoppers, I'll take that as a sign that it's not my day and save myself the trouble of going fishing. Either that, or I'll go fly fishing and tie on a hopper pattern. We're now coming to the good time of year for that.
[signature]

[#6000bf]A great bait. Fish them without weight (if possible). A clear plastic bubble works great as well. You can still fish [/#6000bf][#6000bf]them with a small weight but obviously you lose out on the natural presentation.[/#6000bf]
[#6000bf][/#6000bf]
[#6000bf]I like the clear winged, medium size hoppers best. [/#6000bf]
[#6000bf][/#6000bf]
[#6000bf]When hooking them, I use a small 10-12 sized barbless hook. The key IMO is to hook them on the shell just below the head (without hooking meat). They will stay alive and kick around.[/#6000bf]

[#6000bf]Use an old tennis racket to catch them (hoppers).[/#6000bf]
[#6000bf][/#6000bf]
[#6000bf]Hoppers are DEADLY for bluegill as well. Put on a bobber, a small split shot and the hopper. In the summer it will out fish worms (in my experience) easily.[/#6000bf]
[#6000bf][/#6000bf]
[#6000bf]I attached a pic of the kind of hoppers I like as well as a drawing that shows where to hook them (the drawing is not good but will give you the idea.[/#6000bf]

[quote SkinnyLynnie]OK, now we know how to catch the fish and even how to attach the hooks to the hoppers (super glue!?), but how do you go about catching grasshoppers?[/quote]

Use a fly-swatter!

Grandpa used to pay us a nickel for each grasshopper we'd catch.

Contrary to many other opinions here, we use weight. When fishing hoppers on a stream, we'd fish them much like a night crawler. Place a split-shot about 12" up from the hook. Thread the hopper on the hook through the chest then out the butt. Fish the hoppers along the undercut banks for those wary browns. Get them deep for those fish that won't come to the surface. Good times...
[signature]

Hobble creek is the name if the river. I grew up in Springville. I used hoppers all the time as a kid and scored all the time. Afternoon was the best. The hoppers are active then. I liked to fish down through Brookside under the tree canopy in the shade. Just wade down stream and fish ahead of you. Up in the canyon the water gets really low. Good luck.
[signature]

I have done most of what has been mentioned here and it works well, all of it.

I've also caught a lot of smallmouth on them, cast into the rocks with small weights.

Small hooks keep you from destroying them. I used to use salmon egg hooks through the carapace.
[signature]

When I lived in Idaho, late summer was my favorite time of year just because of all the hoppers. The hopper fly patterns float well and are highly visable and easy to fish. When we used live ones we would sneak up to streams with grassy overhangs and drop them in with no weight just a single hook and float them into cover. If you hook them right they will kick/swim twards shore and make a big ruckus that would drive the fish nuts it's pretty hard to simulate that with a fly. In the middle of the day when it's hot and the fish are not rising to the surface we would drift them through the bottom of the deep holes. As far as using weights, although the presentation isn't real natural (neither is power bait, or a worm and a marshmellow but they still work fine) we would hook two or three on the same hook we called hopper globs and put a split shot a couple of inches above them and fish with a bobber set at the right depth to drift by the fish in the bottom of the pools. Again, not real natural looking but in the middle of the summer day the fish had a hard time resisting.
[signature]

[quote rippin_lips]When I lived in Idaho, late summer was my favorite time of year just because of all the hoppers. The hopper fly patterns float well and are highly visable and easy to fish. When we used live ones we would sneak up to streams with grassy overhangs and drop them in with no weight just a single hook and float them into cover. If you hook them right they will kick/swim twards shore and make a big ruckus that would drive the fish nuts it's pretty hard to simulate that with a fly. In the middle of the day when it's hot and the fish are not rising to the surface we would drift them through the bottom of the deep holes. As far as using weights, although the presentation isn't real natural (neither is power bait, or a worm and a marshmellow but they still work fine) we would hook two or three on the same hook we called hopper globs and put a split shot a couple of inches above them and fish with a bobber set at the right depth to drift by the fish in the bottom of the pools. Again, not real natural looking but in the middle of the summer day the fish had a hard time resisting.[/quote]


Oh ye of little faith...

You need to try the ninja kicking hopper pattern. My vise spits out some weird stuff sometimes.
[signature]