Letort Hopper

S

surveyor06

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Joined
Jan 7, 2009
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515
I tied a couple letort hoppers. First time trying this pattern. I dont have too much experience with deer hair. I know the heads need some work, have to work on cleaning them up a bit better. Anything else I can work on? You can be as harsh as you like, being nice doesnt help me learn. Thanks guys.

Andy
 

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looks good to me... from the side and the bottom. I'd suggest throwing some knotted phesant tail or some rubber for legs. I don't fish them enough to know if it makes a difference, but they sure do look cool
 
Yes your pic is missing the iconic apple symbol Gfen always puts in his pic of flies.

Whatdaiwin??????????
 
Wing length is normally equal to bend of hook. Deer hair is normally slightly shorter than bend of hook. Is the deer hair spun for the head? Looks more like a caddis head.
 
littlelehigh wrote:
Yes your pic is missing the iconic apple symbol Gfen always puts in his pic of flies.

Whatdaiwin??????????
Click to expand...

Only when I take snapshots at work and poise them on top of my laptop to highlight the glorious power and influence of Steve Jobs' for JayL's benefit.
 
Sight_nymph know you talk about him like that?
 
The head looks flaired instead of spun, but I read somewhere that Ed Shenk actually ties them flaired. I have been tying these and the Letort cricket a bit backwards because I could never get the head right. I dub the body, then spin and trim the head. Then I tie in the wings behind the head. Looks about the same and seems to work.
 
The head on mine are flaired simply becuase trying to spin the hair did not go well, and left my tying desk a mess haha. I'll have to work on the proportions a little, shorten up the under wing a bit. I dont think im going to worry about spinning the head, cause i looked up a pick up Ed Shenk's hopper and it is def. flaired. Thanks for the comments so far.

Andy
 
Flared or spun, I doubt it makes much difference to the fish. Nice fly
 
I agree with Bam. I usually tie mine with a bullet head, not flared or spun and they work on Letort trout.
 
Cool, god too know I dont have to spin the hair to get trout to eat my flies. Much easier to just flare it, still gonna cut down that under wing a bit, probably too long.
 
fly_flinger wrote:
I agree with Bam. I usually tie mine with a bullet head, not flared or spun and they work on Letort trout.
Click to expand...

I hope this isn't a silly question, but what is a bullet head? I'm imagining a spun deer head trimmed to a bullet shape, but you said that it isn't spun. Is it just a large thread head?
 
I like bullet heads as well. Tie deer hair in in front of wing, by butt ends, with tips extending beyond the eye. Then grasp them and pull them back over the body. Tie down at point where feather wing ends, giving you a streamlined " bullet" head. At this point I tie in rubber legs. A good coat of cement helps as trout teeth do a good job of destroying these. You might want to look up thunder creek series of flies to get an idea what a bullet head looks like.
 
Thanks tztrout. I'll give that a try.
Mike.
 
Frequent Tyer
Here is a video of how to tie abullet head ,using a bullet head tool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5sl6x-tvCw
 
surveyor06, I flare the deer hair on my letort hoppers and crickets. It seems to work fine. The trout don't know the difference. IMO it is easier than trying to spin the hair. I find working with deer or elk hair that I usually make a mess of my tying area. LOL. Good luck they are good patterns for trout. I would just shorten the wing a little bit and go fishing. A little tip. Try different colors of deer hair and poly yarn.
 
WildTigerTrout,

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I agree, flaring in much easier than spinning and I think in regards to this fly is just as effective. Now that I have been using deer hair, my tying area is a mess too. I'll try some different colors for the body also. I have also tied up some crickets, which I will probably use more being mostly a morning fisherman.
 
Crickets are deadly early morning and just before dark! I caught one of my two Wild Tiger Trout on a cricket pattern developed by Harrison Steeves III. Harry's pattern is more difficult to tie and is more time consuming than the Letort pattern but both work very well!
 
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