More inspiration while thumbing through the archives. Found this in an add for Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop; a variation of Joe’s Hopper, with a hair wing subbing for the turkey quill; since I already had woodchuck out for the Mossy Hopper, I used that. I swapped out the poly yarn body for foam.
hook - Dai Riki 320 #12
thread - MFC 8/0 brown
tails - deer hair dyed red
body - 2mm foam yellow
hackle (body) - brown trimmed
rib - tying thread tag end
wing - woodchuck guard hair
hackle (front) brown/grizzly
Part 1
mash barb, attach the thread and wrap back down the bend a bit; leave the tag end long
clean, stack a clump of deer hair; measure for length (hook gap plus a bit) and tie in (it’ll slant down a bit, which is what you want)
spiral wrap thread forward, binding deer hair down; trim butts
tie in foam strip (about 1/2 hook gap wide) and wrap back to hook bend; a little Super Glue on the wraps helps
loop the foam strip over the tail, tie down and wrap foam forward while the Super Glue is still wet
tie in hackle, wind back to the hook bend and capture with the tag end; wrap tag forward through the hackle and tie off
