Carnage Hopper (variation) SBS

[Uncle Jesse]

Can you honestly say this fly is more productive than the other hopper you tied and is much easier to tie?

[ScottP]

Can you honestly say this fly is more productive than the other hopper you tied

This one's a new pattern for me and I haven't had a chance to use it much yet, so I can't say; I certainly don't expect it to be the magic bullet but it's always nice to have something a little different to show the fish

is much easier to tie?

No, it's not easier to tie than a lot of the other hoppers I fish. It has been fun, though, to figure out the process, and I've got it to the point where I can roll out a good number of bodies pretty quickly; once that's done, the construction of the fly is fairly straightforward, not much different than the Rogue style.

Regards,
Scott

[Uncle Jesse]

Bad typing and proofreading on my part, I meant to express the though the other hopper is easier to tie. I was looking for real justification to try this pattern.

[ScottP]

I was looking for real justification to try this pattern.

I'm tying and trying it because I thought the design/tying technique was interesting and figured it'd be fun seeing how it works. I'm certainly not trying to convince folks they need this fly in their boxes.

Regards,
Scott

[Uncle Jesse]

Have you thought of getting a tube of contact cement instead of superglue.

[ScottP]

I'm pretty happy with the Super Glue; contact cement would definitely provide adhesion, but you'd have to coat both sides of the foam strip, wait for it to dry and then have glue residue on the part of the foam that didn't make "contact".

Regards,
Scott

[ScottP]

Tested the hopper out for a few days in Yellowstone NP and surrounding water - worked well but no better than any other patterns I tried, and in the smaller sizes (#12 and down) using the 1mm foam they proved to be somewhat fragile (the larger 2mm foam version was much more durable), with the extended body tearing off on a number of occasions. Not going to give up on it yet, but if I can't find a way to strengthen it up without adding time to the tying process, I may just stick to the bigger ones for this pattern and the Rogue version for smaller hoppers, which worked just fine. The Carnage drakes, on the other hand, seemed to hold up very well, and generated a lot of interest.

Regards,
Scott

[WarrenP]

Scott, I really enjoyed the SBS and it was very well done. I love exploring new techniques in tying and your hopper is something I will try. I do have a couple ideas that came to mind that are not offered as a "better" way of tying this pattern. I am bringing them up only as "food" for thought. The first thing I thought of while viewing the finished hopper was maybe coating the exposed edge of the foam with a darker color before wrapping it on the needle and this would give the body segmentation which, I know is not needed, but for eye appeal only to the tyer. I think the lighting in your picture gave me this idea and I thought you may have done this, but, looking back over the SBS, I did not see that as a step. Another idea I had that probably will not work, but, it was the first thing that came to my mind when I read that after use, the extended body would be ripped off. Remember this is just the first thing that came to mind because I love a challenge and since I also love the looks of this pattern that you came up with, I wanted to see if I could come up with something that would increase the durability. I am thinking that instead of creating the body by wrapping on a needle, that one could create the body by wrapping/glueing it on a taut piece of heavy mono and this could serve as a foundation for adding strength to the extension.

Please understand that I feel your pattern is great and I am just "thinking out of the box" because I live "out of the box"!! : ) Keep the SBS's coming because I enjoy them!!!

[ScottP]

Warren,

I bet the marker along the edge would create a neat visual (whether the fish care or not is unknown, but like you said, it'd look cool, so why not?). I, too, thought about using a mono underbody instead of the needle and after seeing how fragile the little ones were, this is something I'm going to try; for the smaller flies, I don't thing I'd need anything real heavy, maybe something like Mason 8-10lb. It would also obviate the need to slide the body off the needle, the point in the tying process where I had a number of failures; although I started hitting over .500 success rate using the needle, there were still a number of no-go's.
Thanks for the great suggestions, any and all input is welcome. I like the outside-the-box neighborhood you live in.

Regards,
Scott

[Uncle Jesse]

Have you thought of laying a strip of foam along the needle and wrapping the foam on top of that strip to strengthen the body? Just a thought.

BTW, boxes make great kindling.