I really love Al Campbell’s “too simple” fly patterns. I have even printed off the instructions and put them in a notebook that I keep. I’d love to have a pattern for a grasshopper or cricket if there is one. If anyone has one and don’t mind sharing I’d love to have the pattern and if possible the instructions. I’m really new at fly tying and the simpler the better.
thanks in advance,
hNt
Jason, John’s FEB hopper from last week’s fly of the week is in the catagory of simple but deadly. Try it. Jim
Could be as simple as this:
#8-10 Dry Fly hook
Small strip of yellow or brown foam, tied in at mid shank
Caddis-style elk-hair wing
Basically a big caddis with a foam body. Floats like a cork, big profile, right colors. That’ll catch fish, especially in ripply water where they cant get a good sharp look anyway.
Check out the Charly boy hopper on the charly’s fly box site. Simple with nice clear tying instructions and floats like a cork.
got a link?
http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/details.cfm?parentID=164 O.K but do take a look around the site. There is a lot of other good stuff there.
Hook: 4X streamer.
Ribbing: Olive hackle
Body: Olive dubbing.
Wing: White & Brown Bucktail tips (mixed)
Color: Brown hackle.
Wing extend out past the rear of the hook by 1/3 the hook shank length.
~Parnelli 8)
ok chaser that is a super simple pattern, and one I have the stuff to tie thnx for the link. I want to tie some of the FEB, but haven’t been anywhere to get some of the materials.
That’s pretty much what I tie but in a size 12 and with black rubber legs. It will float all day long, even with a #14 beadhead dropper under it.
What proportion of the fish typically eat the hopper and what proportion typically eat the dropper ??
A couple weeks ago I fished Oak Creek for about an hour. I had nine strikes…2 on the hopper and seven on the dropper. Of those I landed three trout, with one on the hopper.
That’s typical for me as far as ratio. I started fishing a dry/dropper a couple months ago and have had good success. More so than with just a dry or an indicator and nymph.
Is that the Oak Creek out near Sedona AZ?
Greg
Greg, Yes that’s the one. I know there’s better trout fishing in AZ, but when I first started fly fishing last year I caught my first trout there so it’s become my favorite place to fish. Plus the scenery can’t be beat. I go during the week or early mornings on weekends and the crowds are not a problem.
JohnScott,
Depends on what you’re after. In the right conditions (calm waters and not too much heat or cold) bass take the hopper over 1/2 the time. Otherwise bass and panfish take the dropper most. Frequently, a bass on the hopper/popper will cause an attack mode with other bass neary and you can get a double. Rarely is there a double with the dropper hit first.
Trout…well consider the hopper as a strike indicator. If there are a lot of terrestrials around they will take the hopper occasionally, otherwise it’s almost always the dropper.
The simple pattern I use is produced with a closed cell foam cutter that makes a grasshopper shape. This is one gizmo that is really worth the money. Bind this foam shape to the hook (you have covered with a thread base), then add a very little hair or a tiny strip of white packing foam, then another foam piece, then legs tied “X” style.
If you set out your materials, each fly takes about a minute.
You can lay super glue on the thread base to make the fly stay better on the hook and you can glue the “head” pieces of the foam together.
Wrong thread. Sorry.
Hi HungNtree,
A simple hopper pattern is to put a pair of legs, like Madam X legs, on a stimulator. Tie it the color you want and the size you want. It floats well, and is an excellent pattern, particularly in quick water.
It is excellent for quick water because of it’s good floating ability, has an acceptable profile for a hopper, and also because the trout does not have a lot of time to look at the hopper. It can also work in some smooth water situations.
Dave Huges, the knowledgeable and well respected fly tying/fly fishing writer has written that he uses an elk hair caddis, I assume tied in the appropriate size and color, for much of his hopper fishing. He has had good sucess with it. An EHC is one of the easiest drys to tie. You could also put Madam X type legs on it as well, but I would use fairly small diameter leg material if I did so. If going that route, I would tie the EHC on a longer hook, maybe a 2X long dry fly hook.
A better approximation for very smooth water is a Dave’s Hopper, or the Henry’s Fork hopper, but they can not be described as easy to tie for a beginner.
A compromise that works quite well in smooth water, from my reading and discussions, (I haven’t fished one, although a friend has done fairly well with one), and that is much easier to tie than the two above patterns is the Letort hopper. It was designed for spring creeks, seems to work pretty well in those situations, and I think it is easier to tie than quite a few of the foam patterns.
Regards,
Gandolf
Letort hopper, very easy. Deer hair, turkey quill, yellow yarn.
Bob -
Not where I’ve been fishing for trout. I haven’t used a dropper on a hopper since I started fishing them this summer, except one time this week, and it was actually a dropper to a golden stone, not a hopper, to a bunch of big trouts that were holding deep and obviously nymphing.
Trouts in your neck of the woods must not like hoppers like the trouts out here in the Intermountain West do. For more information, you can check out my “Some Time in the Mountains” thread on the Fishing Reports Forum and the thread on the FEB Hopper on the Fly Tying Forum ( or the FOTW from a couple weeks ago ).
Some FEB Hoppers that I sent to Scottp were used all over the Yellowstone area by Scott with really good results on the hopper, without a dropper.
My question was really about whether Brandoni was actually nymphing with incidental hits on the hopper that was being used as an indicator / attractor, or dry fly fishing. His answer suggests he’s basically nymphing and getting some mileage out of the hopper as an attractor. That’s good. More fun, though, from my point of view, when you can just fish the hopper and catch the fishies on it.
John
P.S. It can be argued that if I used a dropper I would catch more fish. That may well be the case. But I’ve been having a ball fishing just the hopper, and see no need to catch more fish.
John,
I really think it is stream related.
In the Gunnison area hoppers work in several locations on the Gunnison but I’ve never had the same type of results on the East or Taylor.
In the Aspen area hoppers are effective on the Crystal and the lower Roaring Fork, but again not so much on the upper RF or the Frying Pan.
Not that you can’t catch the occasional trout on a terrestrial, but mostly it is a strike indicator.