late summer fish story

[_6x_]

I was up in Southern Idaho over the weekend for my grandmother's 94th birthday. My favorite cousin and uncles and I went out for a morning of fishing on Monday. The hoppers were out in force. In one large pool, my cousin spooked a hopper into the run and it was quickly slammed by a relatively good sized trout. Another followed the fish ran across the pool to hit that one with similar aggression. It was clear that any fly that came down the run at that moment was going to get eaten. Although I hadn't flushed the grasshoppers, my cousin let me make the cast, and the rainbow came up again with great confidence. I love that kind of fly fishing!

There's really not much strategy I have to offer here, but a thing that interests me about hopper fishing is how you can strip the fly back on top, even against the current, and sometimes trigger aggressive strikes. After seeing my cousin do this a few times, I followed her lead and did some quick retrieving, just for fun. No need for any undue fretting about the drift.

Back home, I was out last night on the Provo, catching two rainbows and a brown. The best days of the caddis hatch seem to be behind us, but I still am getting a few. Overall it's been a good fly fishing summer for me. My next big fishing event is the fall bite on strawberry. Seeing all the reports here, I have my fingers crossed that it will be a memorable one this year.
[signature]

[gofish435]

Thanks for the story and pictures.

Back in the day when the Strawberry River had a July opener, we used to camp on the river the night before and after we got camp set up we would beat the brush for some hoppers. There were a couple of runs near our camp that we would throw the hoppers in and watch the browns come up and grab them.

Your right, there is not much skill involved in catching them when they all have their heads looking up.[]
[signature]

[wormandbobber]

[quote _6x_]but a thing that interests me about hopper fishing is how you can strip the fly back on top, even against the current, and sometimes trigger aggressive strikes. [/quote]

This is a strategy that I employ at all different times of the year. I especially like doing this during the winter months when no grasshoppers could be out. So, don't restrict yourself to thinking that this won't work at other times and with other flies as well.

Too often, fly fishermen believe that only the perfectly drifting fly will be eaten...that is often not the case.
[signature]

[SBW]

Thanks for sharing. It’s hard to do anything wrong when the hoppers are out!!
[signature]

[richyd4u]

Thanks for sharing...nothing more fun than aggressive hopper strikes! I'll be hitting my favorite hopper waters next week while I'm up North near my childhood waters for work. I always loved watching the hoppers jump into the river as I approached a bank, quickly to be slammed by a trout!
[signature]