ive been fly fishing for a couple years now and ive never used a grasshopper pattern. i was wondering has anybody had any luck with different kinds of species? i have a couple different types but mostly want to try some foam ones i purchased from Cabelas.
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The work best cast right next to the bank. The closer the better they say. Sometimes Getting them to smack onto the water helps draw attention to them.
As John Barr successfully bost "Hopper, Copper, dropper" setups work great. just do a search on "barr hopper copper" and I am sure you will get lots of info.
Does not have to be a hopper either. Chernobyl Ants, Madam X's, Stimulators, Club Sandwichs, any thing big like that will work well for an imitation. Stimulators, Sofa Pillows, Fat Alberts, Klod Hoppers are some of my favorites. I have been experimenting with Wiers' Hoppercator.
The Chernobyl Ant won the Super Fly contest some years back as did Sanchez' Club Sandwich.
A dear friend of mine had a fantastic day one time with a black parchute post hopper pattern he picked off of a bush that another angler had lost there. We dissected the fly a week later but could not figure out what the body was made of. Some kind of rubbery material that was very very thin. The thorax was a black dubbing of some kind. But when I took a picture of the black hopper with a flash the dubbing looked a dull red in the picture. I wondered if the dubbing due to filtering effects of the water might not look red to the fish.
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A couple of friends who also tie learned to tie the Charlie Boy hopper from Charlie Craven and liked the simplicity of tying them and the toughness and the rough water floating of this pattern. But they also liked it because the fish on the Big Horn liked it too.
So I say that some trout do like hoppers. Bass, bluegill and crappie flyfisher claim that those fish hoppers.
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If fish are a rising this time of year, I am a tossin' Hoppers with a dropper. I even put a nice dropper loop on the hopper which I really like using.
Like Scruffy said, I throw toward shore, or I prefer this set up if fishing from shore.
I also Like Madam X's too.
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FG said :[quote flygoddess]....
Like Scruffy said, I throw toward shore, or I prefer this set up if fishing from shore.
I also Like Madam X's too.[/quote]
Yup, I agree, from shore for sure with a dropper, too.
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I used a Daves Hopper #10 with a four foot dropper to a #16 red Copper John...what a combination at Scofield....
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Hopper fishing is by far my favorite as far as dry flys go! Ive never tried tieing the Charlie Boy but my cousin has tied quite a few and he can pull fish out of any river, even ones that I didnt think had any.
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Here's a modified Charlie Boy I tie and use. I substitute poly yarn for the wing and simplify the legs, but create the durable foam body as instructed by Craven. It floats great, works as a "low profile" pattern on tougher creeks/rivers, and the white poly overwing makes it highly visible. I like it in sizes 8-12. The body doesn't twist or slide on the hook shank. And yes, it is now hopper-time!
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