:DWell I finally beat the rain and got out to a local lake, about 25 acres, to chase a few bream and yearling bass. I caught around 20 or close to it. I had several in the 9 - 10 inch range. Most on a black Carter Dragonfly Nymph and a small woolybugger with oversized hackle. Several on a grass hopper pattern.
I have included a photo of the grasshopper, because of a little wakening I had. When I pulled in the next to last yearling bass and the deer hair overwing & head along with the turkey tail fiber legs fell off the grasshopper. My first thought was I am not a very good flytyer. Then I thought I have been blessed to have put together an artifical bug that attracted enough fish to destroy it. I’m taking the grasshopper to the body shop new legs, wing and head. I may get out the kevlar thread this time and use a little more CA underneath.
I hope you had as much fun today as I have so far.
The fish were beautiful, the camera I was using was not capable of capturing there was a photo of a small longear that I made because of the colors, I did not include it just because the colors did not show up.
No, the hopper is a piece of cake. No. 8 Aberdeen Eagle Claw hook, 1/4 in. square piece of foam, trim the angle a little more round or use round foam. You may want to cut a slot in the foam where it will allow the hook to be concealed and use some super glue. Lay down a thread base, tip mount a hackle of choice, I use a brown one, Tie in the foam with enough room to add deer hair wing and as much head as you want. I taper the fron of the tie in area. Cinch down front of foam to hook, use the thread to creat body segments; then palmer the hackle forward to the tie in point; tie in legs, I used 3 fibers from a turkey tail feather on this one, sometimes I use two strands of rubber; tie in deer hair for wing and head. That’s the basic on the one in the photo, it has not been restored.
Know how many professional guides and tyers there are on this website, make doing a FOTW a little intimidating, but I tied up a new one this afternoon to think out the process, I will attempt to clean off the tying table to a presentable level, borrow the wife’s good camera and do a step by step guide soon.
Please don’t be intimidated by the thought of doing a FOTW, either by the process or who is going to be looking at the final product. Your hopper sounds like a fly that a lot of people will tie and use. I’m looking forward to seeing how you do it.
Remember - this summer we could see one of the largest hopper infestations of the past thirty years. No way there will be too many hopper patterns to choose from.:lol:
John
P.S. If you have any questions on how to submit your FOTW, send me a PM.
Thanks John, I will probably have to do that on the submission, I would just do a MSWord document and email it to Ron.
Actually yesterday I sat down and tied a new one for practice and actually thought about the steps instead of just doing them. I came up with a better product at the end and simplified the steps.
