Your favorite hopper and cricket pattern.

[jayL]

Don,

When I fished with fishidiot this weekend, I believe I told him about the fish I caught when crossing the river. That one was my most memorable hopper fish since I saw him chase it so far.

I do remember catching the first one. That fish really smashed it!

A hopper was also killer on the gardner earlier in the week when I went there with Don T.

 

[whheff]

LL, I have tied these hopper patterns and they are really easy. This link is a step by step on how to tie the hopper juan pattern.

http://www.itinerantangler.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?num=1236283409

 

[Fishidiot]

flybop wrote:
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.

Fascinating observation Don. I wonder what to attribute it to? At first glance, it seems obvious that the fish simply got jaded to the foam patterns. I've seen similar trends on a smaller scale, although not as stark as what you saw this year. Often at Yellow Breeches, there's fabulous ant fishing under the big sycamores from about late May until late June. However, by late June, the trout are just jaded to ant flies (except very small red ants) probably because everyone is casting a #16 black ant - the fish simply won't eat 'em by mid summer. Hhmmm....

 

[beadhead2]

At least I don't cut his fly off while he is fishing !!!!!!!!! lol

 

[flybop]

Fishidiot, the fish in the Horn saw so many hoppers floating over their heads this summer that there were days when the catch rate really went down. That is when it took a good caster to get their hopper very tight to structure. As the hopper season went on the fish became more and more selective. They also became less forgiving of a bad presentation.

I'll always remember the day that I was fishing the Breeches when the black birds kept landing in the bushes overhanging the water. Very soon after a black bird landed in the bush some trout would rise just downstream. I quickly realized that the birds where knocking ants off the bush and into the water. From then on I had a great afternoon fishing ants along the banks, waiting for a bird to land in the bush to make my cast.

As for fish becoming tuned into a specific pattern goes, more than a few times I have seen fish in the spring creeks literally nose a fly, both real and artificial, with their mouths closed. They would then drift downstream, watching the fly to see if it was yanked off the surface. If the fly behaved naturally the fish would then sip it down.

 

[Chaz]

A stimulator in the color of the season.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

A stimulator in the color of the season.

Chaz you are the man.

I second this advice very strongly. Stimulators can immitate hoppers or some sort of larger terrestrial. The colors i use are red, yellow or orange bellys with rubberlegs.

At the end of your drift you can stream it under right passed a fish that refused it. Often they will take it thinking its a small fish.

If the stimulator is "smaller" it can look like a large caddis. Great fly and advice Chaz.

 

[Chaz]

Thanks, My preferred colors are black, for winter, yellow and green duringthe summer.

 

[Fishidiot]

This is such a good thread I think I'll leave it re-freshed after deleting the spam. 🙂

 

[PhilC]

Thanks Dave...I never saw this

I go letort style with a curved hook and sub Antron for the turkey tail

Still need to find a better foam version

 

[kbobb]

I like the Letort hopper and cricket but don't like packing and shaping deerhair heads so I make the fly as specified by Ed Shenk's video but use a "bullet head" of deer hair instead of the packed/cut deerhair head - the tips of the hair then extend back over the body like the original. seems to work pretty well for me and is easier for me to tie.

 

[Chaz]

A stimulator in the right size and color.

 

[dubthethorax]

AZ Mini Hopper.
http://azwanderings.com/flies/mini-hoppers/

It passes for hoppers, or tied in black for a cricket. They are super easy to tie, and the hair helps keep em high and dry even when the foam starts to give in.

I also love the Hopper Juan, but more for smallmouth than small stream trout.
http://hopperjuan.blogspot.com/2009/05/hopper-juan-tying-steps.html

 

[boychick]

I tie a similar pattern to the hopper juan that has worked on trout and smallmouth. It fooled this Flat Creek cutthroat which are known to be very discriminating fish. I have not fished this hopper in PA yet. I plan to give it a try this year.

 

[Love2fish]

Tied these up after seeing Dub's link while I was bored working a double shift!!

 

[dubthethorax]

Love2fish wrote:
Tied these up after seeing Dub's link while I was bored working a double shift!!

Look good. I promise you they'll work great. I've caught every species under the sun on them.

 

[fly_doggie]

Parachute hopper, Dave's hopper, Stimi or Humpy - whatever is working at the time! Here in PA or out west, the "cheeseburger factor" catches fish! Tight lines,

Dave :-D