Hopper dropper ...

[JohnScott]

... question for those who use them.

I'm fortunate to fish a freestone stream which is virtually a "cutthroat only" fishery. Those dummies are always ready to go up on top and take a dry, at least starting shortly after the creek thaws out in early spring. From early April through mid November it is a succession of skwalas, salmonflies, golden stones, hoppers, October caddis and a few smaller stoneflies, caddis, midges, and mayflies.

From shortly after the creek becomes fishable until it freezes over ( the creek, that is ), there is no reason to fish a nymph, let alone a dropper off a hopper or any other dry. So once in a while when I'm reading some thread or other here on the BB, the question comes to me -

Does it ever occur to you that if you did not use the dropper that the fishies might actually come up and take your hopper ??

John

[CoachBob]

I've fished drys in Colorado without any fish looking at it, and then attached a dropper and fished the same water with immediate strike results.
Consequently, I'm a firm believer that if they want a dry they'll take it regardless of the dropper, but they can't take a dropper if it's not there.

[Uncle Jesse]

That is a perfectly reasonable question, which I have never stated aloud but I think I started off with just a dry fly without much success and then added the dropper after reading about it. I can say I have caught considerably more fish on a drowned black ant than any dry fly and possibly more than on a single nypmph pattern that I could name. I figure its like Kroger, they have watermelon, cataloupes, and honeydew melons. They probably sell more watermelons and could fill up all the tables with just watermelons, but they sell a lot of the others because they are there.

[ScottP]

I rarely fish a dropper off the hopper - the purist in me says if they won't bite on the dry then too bad, the poor caster in me says it's usually windy when hopper fishing is best and tangles are almost a guarantee if I add a dropper.

Regards,
Scott

[branhap]

Many of my successes of fishing a dry-dropper combo gets the fish to take a look at the dry, refuse it then eat the dropper on his way back to his hole. Especially Grayling!

Typically, if I fish dries, I just fish dries, and don't worry about the dropper. Though I will often times fish a pair, a larger fly and a smaller something that is difficult for me to see on the water heh. Did that once, and turned my head for a sec, looked back and my bigger dry was skating across the water and a fish then struck the skater... which was a caddis dry. To this day, that hookup, is probably one of my top 5.

[oldfrat]

When I'm fishing a hopper, I don't use a dropper. But that's because of weak casting skills. A dropper increases my chances of snarling things up and wasting time untangling things that could be used more productively with my hopper on the water. Your mileage may vary greatly.

[JohnScott]

... as we go along.

In my case, whether I am on one of those "cutthroat only" creeks or not, I am almost always as much interested in how the fly I choose to fish will work as I am in catching fish. When I am fishing with one of my own original patterns, a new one or an older one ( which is most of the time ), the important thing is to see if it works as is, or maybe needs some tweeking.

So I tend to be adverse to droppers for hoppers or any other dry fly that I will be fishing.

One of the replies above suggests that the trout in particular rivers just don't eat bugs on the surface so there is no point to fishing dries - it's a nymph river, end of story. That may well be the case. But is it possible that the dry fly selection is the problem ?? Maybe instead of falling back on a proven nymph record, working with dries only until finding one or more that will work would be more rewarding ??

One of the replies above suggests that often times the fish refuse the dry and go for the nymph. Which makes me wonder if the fishies are actually refusing the dry, or just taking the opportunity to get the easier snack ?? If there were no dropper, maybe they wouldn't refuse the dry. And if they did, maybe it would say something about the dry that is being used and the need to find one that is not so readily and often refused ??

A seemingly prevalent attitude is that the hopper / dry might catch a fish or two so why not use it. If catching one or two more fish is that important, then by all means it makes sense to do the hopper / dropper thing. But if it in fact only catches another fish or two, then why bother with the hopper / dry and the expense involved ?? Why not just use a thingamabobber ( or a cheaper homebrew indicator ), which costs not much and will last many times longer than any hopper / dry and is almost certainly cheaper in the long run, and less hassle in the short run ??

John

[oldfrat]

In warm weather, I'll take a hopper over a thingamabobbr any day. I absolutely love seeing a trout take a hopper. They do it with such flair!

[JohnScott]

In warm weather, I'll take a hopper over a thingamabobbr any day. I absolutely love seeing a trout take a hopper. They do it with such flair!

Noting, of course, that you will not use a dropper on the hopper in the first place because of your weak casting skills.

Regardless of the weather conditions, if you are in a situation where you are getting no action at all on your hopper / dry, what do you do ??

John

[Poke 'Em]

Sometimes they'll take both! I once caught a fish, and when I landed him he had both my dry and my dropper in his mouth. I think he hit the nymph and kept coming right on up to take the dry.