Here’s a fat closed-cell foam hopper built with a translucent drinking straw
between body and shank. If you bend an s-loop into the butt section of your leader,
and then feed that s-loop through the straw, you can then pull the loop (that appears
at the rear end of the straw) up and over the body of the hopper.
Tension at both ends of the line pulls the loop tight around the body, enough so you can
actually catch a fish on the hopper. But if you hold the hook in one hand, and then jerk
on the tippet end of the leader, then the knot loosens up, which allows you to adjust
the bobber-hopper’s position up or down the leader, as needed.
That is a good idea. The bottom line will be which method
kinks the leader butt more, and which is easier to adjust up and down the leader, as needed.
I just made a few of my foam hoppers with a loops
at each end, Mickey Weir-style. Looks pretty good. I’ll work with them both. And see.
A side note:
Someday the fly shops will start to carry ultra-light, 2lbs per cubic foot closed cell foam.
The stuff they do sell varies upward from 4lbs per cubic foot. I got some ultra-light foam
years ago, for making boat seat cushions. But it turned out to be a lot more valuable
for hoppers. For some inexplicable reason, lightweight foam remains very difficult to find.
OK. I’ve been experimenting with both bobber hopper methods:
create a hopper with mono loops at both ends
The leader butt makes a loop-to-loop attachment at the front end,
with tippet running out through the rear end loop, in order keep
the hopper parallel to the long axis of the leader
The under-mounted drinking straw method.
They both work. But there is a big difference.
The loop-to-loop method does end up kinking the leader butt,
especially if you catch a fish on the hopper, and thereby pull the loop-to-loop
extra tight. You can undo the knot and move the hopper up or down,
if stream conditions vary, but you will be left with an annoying kink in the leader butt,
at the first attachment point.
The undermounted straw method kinks the leader less. And it is easier to move
and re-adjust position. All you do is tug on the tippet end, while holding the fly,
and everything pops loose.
Try them both. The traditional “hopper dropper” puts a hopper out near then
end of your leader, with a small nymph trailing 18-24" behind. This is often just what the doctor ordered. But it is hard to
cast a big bushy hopper (when mounted near the leader’s end) followed by a weighted nymph,
especially if there is any wind. And you cannot get much depth on the trailing nymph.
If you put the hopper much closer to the nail knot, then the whole rig is far easier to cast–and you can also get far more depth on the nymph. And you will still catch fish on the hopper, even though
it’s attached close to the fat end of the leader.
