First time I fished Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone (before the crowds) I hit hopper season on the nose and this was the first one I used (hook has a bit of rust on it and the foam’s a bit chewed):
Every time I pull one out, it reminds me of those brilliant summer mornings in the Park and the noise the hoppers made when they started revving their engines around noon; sounded like weedeaters. Pounding those big flies against the undercuts and seeing those cutts dart out from the bank or rise up from the bottom to take the hopper; don’t think fishing could get any better than that. I like Wally’s GFA and Charlie Craven’s Charlie Boy a lot, but this one holds lots of memories.
[ul]
[li]Hook: Mustad 9671 #6
[/li][li]Thread: Uni Thread 6/0 Tan
[/li][li]Rib: tying thread (Al called for copper wire but I just left the tag end of the thread long to save a step)
[/li][li]Underbody: Sparkle yarn yellow
[/li][li]Body: 2mm foam Tan
[/li][li]Wing: Deer Hair
[/li][li]Legs: Round Rubber Yellow
[/li][/ul]
About the only changes I’ve made over the years is to scale back the size (#10-12 seems to work better these days) and tie the legs down in 2 spots to keep them secure. Change the colors to fit your local critters:
Thought I would try a little different pattern for this insect. Used bucktail for the overwing. Deer hair and web hair for the underwings. No appropriate foam on hand.
I’m also a fan of the Charlie Boy hopper but I was given a pheasant last week by a friend who had been dog training. This immediately brought to mind Jack Gartside’s pheasant hopper.
Like Scott I am a fan of the Charley boy Hopper but I was given a pheasant last week and the first thing I though of after dinner was Jack Gartside’s pheasant hopper. I hadn’t tied one in so long I had to look up the instructions.
We’ll see lots of good hopper patterns. Among them many good foam hoppers too. This one is special not so much because of its design or its apperance, but because of its material: 2lbs per cubic foot closed cell foam.
The lightest foam available in fly shops is EVAZOTE, which is about 4lbs per cubic foot. Much of the dense (squeeze it) sheet foam sold in fly shops is closer to 6lbs per cubic foot. Foam salesmen are hard-wired to equate dense with high quality. Dense foam is better for most packaging applications. But what they regard as low quality (ultra light weight) is what you want for making dry flies.
I have a large quantity of 2lbs per cubic foot EVA foam I bought for making boat seat cushions. Because it is not dense you cannot lash it to a hook tightly, because tight wraps will cut right through the foam. But if you lash it down loosely, with flat nylon, then you can glue it in place with CA glue. Then you have a hopper that floats like none other. You can hang a lead-weighted streamer off the bend of the hopper hook and it still won’t sink. It’s TWICE as light as Evazote. Up to three and even four times as light as many other foams. You can mend the line and sink the hopper, and it still comes right back on top a second later.
Someday some materials wholesaler will sell this stuff. Right now it’s hard to find. Think of it this way: dry fly foam that is three times lighter is three times better. It’s got to be out there somewhere, as a retail item. I got it from a Seattle area wholesaler who at first refused to deal with me. I had to hustle him. I told him: “This is a test order. If it works out I’ll be buying $1000 a month on a net 30 basis.” I’m still looking for a retail source. This is EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) closed cell foam. But 2lbs per cubic foot polyethylene exists too. EVAZOTE is EVA foam too. The base resin is one thing. The density–usually measured and compared as a weight per cubic volume–is another.
…many I have mentioned this to react with something like: “My foam hopper floats just fine.” My answer is “Yes, but mine floats even better. A lot better. Up to six times better.”
Materials:
Hook: MFCo. 7026 8-10
Thread: Red 6/0 Uni
Legs: MFC speckled legs med. for 8?s and small for 10?s
Underbody: pink craft foam
Overbody: tan craft foam
Wing: natural deer hair
Indicator: orange craft foam
SBS
tie in back legs split
tie in underbody foam at eye extending out from hook
superglue thread base, wrap pink foam back to tail-legs
attach overbody with 3 wraps at tail-legs, then loop thread over the top of the underbody to the eye (this way no wraps show and you can get the thread back to the eye
put superglue on the top back of the underbody and fold overbody down and secure at the eye, then wrap back to form bullet head
tie in wing of deer hair, glue butts, fold over foam to form bullet head and tie down
tie in legs and indicator post, keeping thread wraps to minimum.
whip finish, varnish
I want some of those and I am not kidding
Byron Haugh
6421 Kaahele St
Kapaa, Hi 96746
PS I can’t post a pattern right now as I am out of foam materials. Ordered some today. Hope to get one up before Sunday. I am still working on this skwala pattern:
