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Post 23 Aug 2019, 12:01 • #1 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/06/15
Posts: 1249
Location: Central Oregon
I know a perfect hopper hole: A river flows through a wide grassy meadow with just riffles, no holding water. Just before a big reservoir there are some house sized rocks, with strong currents and some big swirling holes. Drifting a hopper through the slots will invariably find nice trout who come up from the reservoir to feed.

Except this week. I always thought an Amy's Ant was a good hopper pattern. It always worked in the past.

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No luck at all. I figured before I left, I'd try a deep sinking tungsten nymph. I put an orange Coros cork indicator bobber way up the leader, almost to the fly line.

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No hits on the nymph, but they repeatedly knocked the bobber out of the water.

I had another hopper, with a little bit of orange:

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They didn't go after it quite like the bobber, but at least it caught three nice fish. Somewhere I have an "indicator fly", a big orange foam ball with a shuck of elk hair and hook. I use it in a creek where they like palsa stick-on indicators more than most flies. I shouldn't leave home without it!

Anyone have a favorite?


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Post 23 Aug 2019, 13:33 • #2 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
Fold one of those stick ons around a bare hook? Hang a dropper hook an inch from the mini bobber?
I like the hopper with the orange in it.


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Post 23 Aug 2019, 13:37 • #3 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/06/15
Posts: 1249
Location: Central Oregon
Trev wrote:
Fold one of those stick ons around a bare hook? .


Ha. I had a friend who got so frustrated with them one day he did just that. Worked pretty well. I heard.


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Post 23 Aug 2019, 14:20 • #4 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/22/16
Posts: 1760
Location: SJC
Interesting. I've had good luck this year with the Pink Pookie Hopper, maybe for the same reason (whatever that is).


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Post 23 Aug 2019, 18:44 • #5 
Master Guide
Joined: 08/03/14
Posts: 945
Location: central AR
I used to know an old guide that always carried a few bright orange Stimulators for clients one those days.


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Post 23 Aug 2019, 20:54 • #6 
Guide
Joined: 08/21/18
Posts: 168
Location: West Yellowstone and Atlanta
It is hopper season on the Madison, and i have fished it several times lately. I am constantly amazed at how aggressively fish will eat hoppers -- but then get choosy about size, shape, color, and who knows what else. I sometimes think the fish really like dangly legs -- at least until i catch fish on a hopper with all the legs torn off. In heavily fished spots like the Madison, i have seen a lot of fish following, inspecting, refusing, etc. flies before eating or declining to do so. For what it's worth i like the OP's hoppers, but then i am not gonna eat either one!


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Post 23 Aug 2019, 22:22 • #7 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 12/31/15
Posts: 1238
Location: Northern Rockies
Orange stimulator is a favorite. I have caught some excellent fish on the stimi, even when everything else said that I shouldn't.

For a true hopper, the Morrish Hopper pulls a lot of fish for me. The profile is very realistic, maybe the most of any hopper pattern that I've seen. I like it in the pink/tan version best.


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Post 24 Aug 2019, 06:13 • #8 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/20/07
Posts: 8920
Location: US-ME
Muddler minnow, tied with variant wing and body colors. Tied bushy, but trim astream to suit conditions.


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Post 24 Aug 2019, 08:47 • #9 
Guide
Joined: 08/21/18
Posts: 168
Location: West Yellowstone and Atlanta
[quote

For a true hopper, the Morrish Hopper pulls a lot of fish for me. The profile is very realistic, maybe the most of any hopper pattern that I've seen. I like it in the pink/tan version best.[/quote]

This pattern works pretty well in various locales in its various iterations including tan/pink, tan/tan, and tan/yellow. It is so prevalent however that i fear fish all over the northern Rockies are posting pics on their own forums and to alert against eating them! Until that happens, i guess we keep on fishing them.


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Post 24 Aug 2019, 11:40 • #10 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
My best hopper has always been the Hornberg Special. I tied it originally as a streamer per instructions in a book or magazine, but mine don't sink.
Muddler would probably take second place if I still tied them.


Last edited by Trev on 24 Aug 2019, 11:42, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 24 Aug 2019, 11:43 • #11 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 12/31/15
Posts: 1238
Location: Northern Rockies
I worry about that too, so I always keep an extra “unique” pattern or two with me, just in case.

But so far, the Morrish hopper keeps working. The trick for me is to go a little smaller than usual.


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Post 24 Aug 2019, 14:33 • #12 
Guide
Joined: 08/21/18
Posts: 168
Location: West Yellowstone and Atlanta
GlacierRambler wrote:
The trick for me is to go a little smaller than usual.


Agreed. But on the other hand sometimes the bigger the better and the biggest hopper fly you have ever seen just seems to say "16 oz. ribeye" even to a wizened brown.

I was reminded of another fishing "trick" for hoppers last week. I am somewhere between often and nearly always tempted to fish two flies at a time--and i am especially tempted to tie on an ant behind a hopper when i know they are both in play with the fish. But a few times lately I took off the trailer fly on a hopper, with several benefits: 1. The main one is that i have a terrible tendency to tangle dropper tippet in all the moving parts of a hopper fly. 2. I get distracted trying to watch two flies and miss strikes (and of course i never miss one on a single hopper?!) 3. I think a single fly gets a little bit better drift than one followed by a nymph or a smaller dry such as an ant or whatever.


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Post 24 Aug 2019, 14:39 • #13 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/06/15
Posts: 1249
Location: Central Oregon
Yeah the hopper/dropper isa standard for me. Better yet, run a copper john as the nymph—— the copper hopper dropper!


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Post 24 Aug 2019, 18:31 • #14 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
If bass are in the water, you could try a popper-copper-hopper-dropper.

Sorry.


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Post 24 Aug 2019, 18:44 • #15 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/20/07
Posts: 8920
Location: US-ME
Oh yah. The Hornberg is another versatile all around fly, which can be tied with materials favoring flotation, neutral buoyancy, sinking according to the primary use expected. Foam patterns look good to the eye, but on the water, the opaque, flat coloration lacks the insect-like hyaline appearance provided by arrayed hackled fibers, feather wings, or hairwings. A favored hopper pattern of traditional materials can be tied bushy/bulky--presenting a mottled but more opaque appearance, and then trimmed as need be towards a more hyaline appearance, and to adjust the way its body sits on the surface film are sits down more in the water.


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Post 01 Dec 2019, 10:21 • #16 
Guide
Joined: 06/08/18
Posts: 293
Location: Boston , MA
Hi Whirlpool ,my recollection of a unique and simple pattern that was tied way back when by Polly Damon at The House of Tall Tales fly shop in Oquossoc , ME. She would use a standard size/shank dry fly hook of whatever size , use yellow/red/green/orange etc wool yarn as a body , loop the yarn for a small tail and rib with various color nylon , use Turkey Quill for a traditional caddis style wing , finished with a couple of brown hackle of various shades , even dark ginger at times , it was always a deadly pattern in some of the meadow streams and other in the Rangeley area , Polly tied some incredible flies back in the day , along with some nice interpretations of the traditional streamer patterns (a few of which I have now retired to collection ) , one of the greats of the time along with Dick Frost , Bud Wilcox , and the likes thereof , vintage memories rummaging through the fly boxes there !!!


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Post 01 Dec 2019, 10:36 • #17 
Guide
Joined: 06/08/18
Posts: 293
Location: Boston , MA
Apologies to Newfydog & whirlpool , had catered the reply to whirlpool and Maine not realizing the thread had been started by Newfydog , no doubt a rookie newbie error of my own doing , so again I apologize , in either event I hope the pattern description may have shared insight (?) you never know right ? Regards > PG


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Post 01 Dec 2019, 12:14 • #18 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 09/18/09
Posts: 5561
Location: Relocated to the Drought Stricken West.
I'm a fan of the Madam-X with either Yellow or Orange body and white or black legs. ..... I always blame the color of the legs when I don't catch fish.


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Post 01 Dec 2019, 13:02 • #19 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/21/06
Posts: 3080
Location: Orygun
Newfy, there's a lake that I fish several times a year. The banks are full of hoppers, so they trout are often cruising the banks feasting when the wind kicks up. They'll also take hoppers out in the middle of the lake (it's really something to see a fish come out of the depths (more than 20') to smash a dry fly. For that type of situation and just about every other hopper situation where fish refuse to go after my standard foam stuff, a big parachute hopper nearly always does the trick. Of course, I like to double dip with a dropper off of it....in the lake, I'll go with a balance leech, but in rivers, it'll almost always be a size 16 PT of some form.

Cheers!


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Post 01 Dec 2019, 13:43 • #20 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/06/15
Posts: 1249
Location: Central Oregon
Interesting this thread should come back to life now. There is a stream I fish every Nov-Dec during the whitefish spawn. A pepper-corn sized egg pattern will catch loads of big, "diesel powered" whitefish, as well as a good number of trout. I fish them on the Tenkara close up, or off an indicator at a distance. Oddly, there is often a trout who will hit an orange indicator on the first cast. I use a fly much like this Orvis Stimulcator and pick up a few trout on it every trip. I even landed a whitefish who couldn't fit the thing in his mouth.

Image


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Post 01 Dec 2019, 16:51 • #21 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/27/16
Posts: 2327
Location: US-IL
Fish are nuts.A local retention pond i take my grandson to actually has some nice fish.C&R only and the bass love hitting those little orange and yellow bobbers over and over.Carp take a whack at them too.I have seen stocked trout try to eat the tippet knot before too.Thinking about orange and yellow foam poppers and mono midges.


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Post 04 Dec 2019, 08:41 • #22 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/23/08
Posts: 944
Location: US-MT
Bobber Hopper!


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Post 04 Dec 2019, 08:47 • #23 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
There's a piece of pocketwater below a riffle where we always have wild-spawned rainbows in the fall.
The structure makes it a constant BWO hatch. I investigate it for wild-spawned fish using my swimming BWO for a dropper, and tie a bobber parachute fly on a Uni-bobber - always split fish between the two flies.


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Post 04 Dec 2019, 09:14 • #24 
Sport
Joined: 11/13/17
Posts: 34
Location: WI
pittendrigh wrote:
Bobber Hopper!


The Bopper? The Big Bopper?


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Post 04 Dec 2019, 17:12 • #25 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/23/08
Posts: 944
Location: US-MT
...ain nuthin in the world like a big'ol fish
make the world go round?

You know what I like.

Actually all foam hoppers are bobber hoppers. No? They don't sink so they're like bobbers with a hook. If you tie a dropper to the hopper hook.


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