We found this guy in NE AZ last week while fishin’ that part of town.
Even more colorful in person than on the picture.
That is one colorful hopper. I wonder if the special coloration saves him from predators?
VERY cool looking hopper.
Might just want to use yellow foam and makers for the other colors…
Our big yellow hoppers are a delicacy to about anything here.
Dad says they have a monster red hopper that shows up down in FL occasionally. Says he hasn’t found anything down there that will eat them. Anyone else?
Robert Williamson has a book out with new material like tubes plus twisting material to get the multi color for this hopper. Check out his book. Really cool stuff.
These are called “Painted Grasshoppers”, (original, huh!?). Only found in the Western US and their coloring is to supposedly “warn predators that they are not good to eat”.
Besides the orange and black, they’re also found in yellow & black and green & Black.
Kind of a neat looking hopper!!
I talked to a gentleman just last week who was throwing something that looked a lot like that. He was bemoaning the lack of takes he was getting, which likely had more to do with his 15-foot casts up a bank I had already fished than his psychedelic hopper.
They make swirly colored foam, I have seen it in craft stores. Would work well for that hopper. Some koosh legs, maybe a hit of acid before you started fishing…
We have a yellow and black hopper that shows up down here every spring. Darn thing’s are 4 to 5 inches long. I don’t have a fly rod that could cast it!
Kirk
So thats where the “Fire Tiger” color came from.
Flybinder,
I kind of wondered about the color being a warning, sort of like the bright colors on poison dart frogs.
REE
I agree about the coloration being something more of a warning than an invitation.
I have had luck with very simple foam ant-hopper patterns in AZ and less luck with the “poison hopper” patterns and colors. (just like the little frogs)
I 'll probably stick with the chiro emergers and easily colored foam ants to catch fish in that part of the country…although still a fun challenge to get that coloration down. 
I would suggest that the mottled coloration had evolved as a means of camouflage. Since I don’t attribute much to a fish’s intellegence, I would say they “learn” prey is not good only after having tried some. I’ve been told this is why bass don’t gorge on tadpoles.
So the tadpoles don’t taste good? But the adults do? Bass sure love them adult tadpoles!