Your favorite hopper and cricket pattern.

littlelehigh

littlelehigh

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Last nite I tried tying some letort style patterns and to be honest I just don't think I have what it takes to pack deer hair.


So this evening I was gonna put an order together for theflystop.com which included letort hoppers and crickets. But then I saw Squaretails "Hero" thread and in the one caption he mentioned he used a Joe's Hopper.

I was just wondering which style hopper and cricket patterns do you buy or tie? Also which pattern do you prefer on slow meadow Class A waters with little to no pressure vs. stocked ATW and FFO waters or doesn't it matter.


I am planning on buying the most popular suggestions from this. Thank you in advance for your input.
 
I like two...

1 - foam hopper: square slice of thick foam lashed to the hook in 3 or 4 places, color accordingly.

2 - Hoppicator: large folded foam hopper with a parachute.
 
Parachute hopper, size 12.
 
I would suggest sending Squaretail a message, sometimes I swear Hoppers are the only flis he has in his vest during the summer and early fall!
 
Still looking for a favorite. I do not tie hoppers really. I used them so little in PA so bought one now and then. I bought a bunch in MT and am now interested in fishing PA hopper season.

I also use stimulators for hoppers.
 
I like Letort hoppers and crickets, but have always had more luck with cricket pattern when it comes to terrestrials. I use them as indicator flies alot.
 
For a few years I used parachute hoppers a heck of a lot. The past two years I began to use more and more Joe's and Letorts. As the hopper season progressed on the Horn this summer and fall the gawdy foam hoppers became less effective. That's when the Letort and Joe's became the go to hopper. Whatever pattern you go with just make sure that you have the size range of the naturals covered.
 
Although my hopper are usually foam, like stated above, have some that sink.

Once a hopper drowns, it moves to the middle of the current and the fish eat them there all of the time -- no struggling legs.

Same with ants.
 
Just to make sure I'm not crazy, check out this link. On this page I could swear they have the "Joes" hopper listed as "Daves" hopper, and vice versa:
http://www.theflystop.com/store.html?cid=7&dry-flies-terrestrials

I havent been wrong all this time, have I?
 
I loved the Letorts and never tried others.The Letort cricket is all you need on small Colorado streams so they are worth carrying in the west.
 
Squaretail, the flies are correctly labeled on that link. Of course, they could have just switched them to mess with our heads ;-)
 
I love any of the ones with packed hair at the head. I also HATE tying hoppers as they take too long and get torn up too easily, especially when you're fishing for panfish. I have caught my fair share of trout, bass, and panfish on them though, both on top with action, and submerged in the current. If anyone wants to tie me some I would gladly appreciate it! :-D :-D
 
Daves hopper and cricket, I have tried them all and always go back to daves. always comes through for me. I do sell flies online too. just tell me what you want..
 
I always get daves hoppers and joe's hoppers mixed up as well. Green jacket, gold jacket, who gives a sh#t
 
On PA streams, it was almost always my experience that fishing a hopper pattern had more to do with wanting to fish one than actually needing to. Or 95% of the time anyway.

Once you get out west or even in much of the upper midwest, due to the generally more open surroundings of the streams, the need/want thing above is reversed and you often "need" to fish a hopper

I like the Letort Hopper the best of any I've found to date. A simple tie, IMO. The reason I think it is so "simple" has nothing to do with me being a good fly tyer. I'm not very good. But all you really need to do with the deer hair head is splay it out over top of the hook eye with a couple loose wraps and then some tight ones, and then clip it to shape. No need to pack hair, IMO at least. I think its all the same to the fish.

I've monkeyed around a lot with putting a yellow or tan or green foam body on them, but year in and year out, I think the original dubbed yellow fur/synthetic body is notably superior.

The Letort Cricket is also a very versatile pattern and I use them a fair amount Smaller crickets with some dark brown in them are the most common where I fish. So, most of my crickets are 14-18's.

Here is a variation on a Tom Wendelberg cricket that is also a very good fly: http://www.danica.com/flytier/jfreund/cricket.htm

This is from the vise of Jason Freund, who grew up in WI and is now, for whatever reason living in OK. Nice fella..
 
Hopper fishing is - I think - a good bit underrated here in PA and points back east and overrated out West (vice versa for ants/beetles). While hoppers will alwys slay 'em out in the open grass valleys out West, we have a LOT of hoppers here in PA on smaller valley streams and esp the limestoners surrounded by meadow. I think PA FFers underutilize hopper and cricket patterns, esp in smaller sizes.
The deer hair hoppers/crickets have a proven track record and have been nailing big trout for years - they certainly have a big fan base as this thread testifies. Anyway, I'm gonna go out on the limb and play the devil's advocate on patterns like the Letort/Dave's Hoppers. I should qualify it with the note that I'm generally not a fan of ANY clipped deer hair flies.
Here's why they're lousy IMO: Deer hair flies are tough to tie and don't float as well as foam; they float too "high; lack the body shape "indicators" common to these insects; and are pretty wind resistant. Their great virtue is durability and "bugginess."

On this "indicator" thing - I think certain prey species posses certain shape and movement characteristics that indicate clearly what they are and function as strike triggers. For surface flies like hoppers/crickets, these bugs have very distinct and similar shape profiles. However, if you pick up a grasshopper or cricket, there are some distince profile difference: hoppers are generally deeper in the body than wide - they're really quite narrow. Most hopper patterns are way too thick and bushy IMO. Of course, when their wings are splayed, it's another story but when their wings are folded they're very narrow. Crickets are about as wide as they are deep and have longer antennae and three "tails" at the back of the abdomen. Both of these bugs float just at the waterline with most of their bodies actually under the water line. I think foam better represents this than deer hair or hackle.

For what it's worth, I've attached a quick concept sketch showing these profiles and float level and my basic "sandwich" style hopper.

Am I overanalysing this stuff - perhaps (Ok, probably) but catch a couple of these bugs sometime, look at their shape, and toss 'em in the water to see how they float. All part of the fly tying mystique. :)
 

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I use a woven body grasshopper and a woven body cricket that are LouM's patterns
 
copy kat....lol....
 
Fishidiot, this was a banner year for hopper fishing out here. In fact, it was Jay L that caught the first hopper fish for me this season. That was around 20 Jul. The last fish caught on a hopper that I saw was in the first week of Nov.

This long season gave me plenty of time to really study natural hoppers. After catching so many naturals and giving them a toss in the river I agree with you on the profile they present on the water. Many common patterns do fail to mimick the elongated profile of real hoppers, which is strange. The ones that do this best are foam bodies, rubber legged ones like the one in your post. Patterns like that caught a heck of a lot of fish this past summer.

Having said that, after the fish were fed the foam stuff for months they began to shy away from them a bit. That is when the Letort and Dave's hoppers began to be the hot patterns. IMHO hoppers offer the trout such a great meal opportunity that the fish really key in on the basic size and shape. Also, often there is a wide variety of sizes, colors and profile of the naturals out there that the fish are willing to smash anything that remotely looks like a hopper.

I can remember the moment that the hopper season really got going on the Horn. We were eating lunch in the boat when the wind got going. A 20+ mph wind was blowing off a high bank over the river. Suddenly there were hundreds of hoppers on the surface. The fish just went nuts, and within 15 minutes they had eaten so many of those big, juicy hoppers that they were literally stuffed.
 
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