BC Hopper

[Matt Steffens]

I am Trying to tie John Barr's BC Hopper. But can not seem to get it right. first off what glue can I use to hold two pieces of 3mm foam together without them comming apart after one fish? Also another glue question, is there also a glue out there that I can use to hold rubber legs together without them spliting apart, I have tried flex cement but it flakes off of the rubber. Can any one help me with this pattern, or know where I can get a pattern as a refenence? Thanks

[Hairstacker]

Hmmm . . ., I've never tied one of those but, if I wanted to hold two pieces of foam together securely, I would try super glue.

[dtp916]

http://www.flyfisherman.com/ftb/jbbarrflies/index1.html


That should help if you haven't seen it before 8) Use super glue. Good Luck! I'll take a few as a payment :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Adam Grace]

Matt, I would just buy that fly, way too much material and work IMHO. There are plenty of other simple hopper patterns that will produce just as well or better than the BC Hopper. I have used that fly quite a bit without a bunch of success. The concept and idea behind the BC makes sense yet the fly is heavy due to all of the material plus the commercially tied versions that I've fished usually land on their side or upside down.

My advice try to tie another more simple hopper pattern like this:

Chaos Hopper
http://www.umpqua.com/images/PRODUCT/medium/680.jpg

Craven's Charlie Boy Hopper - the simple version that sparked the collaberation for the BVC Hopper, BC = Barr and Craven's Hopper
http://www.umpqua.com/images/PRODUCT/medium/681.jpg

I have found that the more foam that is on a pattern the less it floats. Tying foam, 2mm, for small flies can be more dense than porous, multiple layers of foam squished together reduces the porous nature of the materials and adds too much weight for the foam to keep afloat, in my experience. Not all foam flies perform this way, but with the influx of foam pattern over the past 5 years there have been fly designs that use way too mush foam such as:

The BLT Hopper, no real natural movement, doesn't float as well as the amount of foam would lead us to believe.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/content/Item/31/62/00/i316200sn01.jpg

Does anyone disagree with me, have you had a different experience?

Does anyone have another suggestion for a more simple hopper pattern for Matt?

[Jgoding]

Personally, I stray away from foam but that's just me..... It baffles my mind that patterns like the chernobyl ant can raise a decent sized fish but they do.... I can't argue with success...

Anyways, I've always liked Dave's hopper but you can tie whatever you want.... remember that.... hell, make up your own pattern.... that's my advice.... too many people get caught up with patterns and the "right" materials and fishing only certain types of flies.....

But if you really want to tie the BC Hopper.... it was this easy.... open up MSN.... type in BC Hopper...... I think this was the first link

http://home.centurytel.net/gigharborflyfisher/public_html/bchopper.html

Better post a pic of your fly when your done.......

[dtp916]

Its is a lot of work for a hopper pattern. You can get a pretty cool hopper pattern by using the Stimulator body, and the BC hopper/Madam X head/wing part with a little piece of yellow yarn or foam on top...Rubber legs for sure too. It'll float well and won't absorb water like Adam was saying.

I think its called Bullethead hopper or something like that.

[Matt Steffens]

Thanks for the input. I'll be sure to post a pic when I am satisfied with the job.

-Matt

[Matt Steffens]

well I am not quite satisfied yet, but definately tired and ready for bed. What do you think? I know I need to work on my bullet heads, but over all I am pretty happy. For how long it took me to tie it had better work!

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g134/msteffens55/bcside.jpg


http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g134/msteffens55/bctop.jpg


http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g134/msteffens55/bcbottom.jpg

[Adam Grace]

That looks pretty good, I hope that it fishes as good as it looks. Let us know how it works.

[Matt Steffens]

well, I fished th Yuba last night. Took a couple on a small Golden stone nymph, about 5:30 or so I tied on one of my BC Hoppers and low and behold I hooked in to a rainbow on my second cast! Bad part is I broke him off and now there is about a 16 inch fish swimming around the yuba with one of my damn hoppers in his lip. O well, it did work. Floats very well I might also add!

[SullyTM]

Working with foam can be fun, but you have to be patient. If a pattern calls for 2mm thick foam I'll tie a couple using 1.5mm and even 1mm just to work out the kinks in the pattern. I like to add a drop of Zap at the tie in points to assist in preventing the foam from spinning around the hook shank. If you're not sure about a foam flies floatability put the fly in a cup of water and monitor it's buoyancy. Adam is correct about excessive amounts of foam effecting the buoyancy.

Later...

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I was on the Missouri River in July near Craige/Cascade about 20 years ago with 'trout commandos' Rick Jorgensen and Don Rotsma.

We hit the afternoon 'hopper hatch' with high winds blowing hoppers off high bluffs out on to the water.

It was like a Striper surface bite.

Bob Giannoni calls it "hoppertunity" in Montana in August/September.

Mid-summer in the afternoons when the wind blows is hopper time!!!

[SullyTM]

Bill...Another very good mid/late summer pattern is the yellow jacket! Can be tied with foam and/or dubbing!

Later...

[Jgoding]

Hey Matt,

Good job with the fly and sorry you broke it off but it happens.... I know there are a lot of logs with my flies attached to them in the American....
Keep tying and experimenting with the pattern til you like it.... there are aslo other ways of creating the body without gluing also.... just surf around the net and you can pick up quite a lot of techniques for tying just about anything..

Jeff

[jblack]

Matt a few years back I bought a Bullet head tool from Bill's shop and it made making even bullet heads a snap. It looks like a small disk and slips over the deer hair. almost like having an extra hand to even the hair and tie it down.

[SteelieD]

I found this hopper. Looks pretty basic... I'm gonna give it a try.

http://hipwader.com/2003/fishys-hopper-pattern

[dtp916]

That is pretty simple :)

The perfect hopper on Westfly.com seems pretty cool too 8)

[davkrat]

I have two theories when it comes to tying flies. Nymphs should sink and dries should float. I love foam dry flies. I've never been one to buy flies or tie from pattern books. Learning to tie as a kid my older brother always got the good materials to use and the book so I made due. A couple years ago I "came-up" with a technique to hide the hook in the foam and put the segmented sections of the foam body on the bottom where the fish could see it. Little did I know there were already several patterns out there that did this, Barr's pattern for one.

http://www.kratvillephoto.com/images/_M1W4348s.jpg

My pattern, the Kratville Caddis works as a caddis/grasshopper/stonefly pattern. http://www.kratvillephoto.com/Caddis Here is the original writeup on tying it from Fly Anglers OnLine http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/022706fotw.html If you want to see lots of Hopper patterns look at Peter Frailey's site http://www.fishingwithflies.com/KratvilleCritters.htm

I now tie may caddis patterns on a TMC 2488 it's a 3X wide, 2X short fine wire hook. The larger gape in relation to the length of the shank makes up for the thickness of the foam. I've had better hooking success this way.

Once you get the hang of it tying with foam is very easy and turning out nicely shaped and segmented bodies is easier than getting a perfect dubbing body. Most importantly with dry flies, they float! I don't think you need to go to all the touble of tying knots in the legs. If you are having trouble with foam flies sinking use a lighter hook and thicker foam.

As some one said compressing the foam reduces it's floating ability. By only gluing down the wing on my pattern it retains its floating ability while the compressed body section sinks into the surface a bit. You still need to dress these flies to keep the deer hair form getting waterlogged. I have also gotten numerous strikes on the downstream end of a drift when allowing the fly to be pulled below the surface.

In my experience natural materials, dubbing in particular get waterlogged very quickly and are hard to get floating right again once they've been pulled under. I like to fish pocket water and having to tie on a new high floating dry every 15 minutes because they were water logged always bothered me. The foam pops back up like a cork.

The occasional shake to dry the deer hair and you're good to go. I also soak my dries in silicone floatant when I finish tying them which helps. Bullet head hair wing style flies will land on their side if the wing gets water logged. Again, the shaker of floatant cures this right up. I have not noticed any difference in fish catching ability when floating on their side but they definately are easier to see riding right side up.

[Darian]

BUGGGGGYYYY Stuff.... 8) 8) 8) I'm a big fan of foam body flies, also. :D :D

[Hairstacker]

Dave, nice pattern! I love the way you bring the foam up from the bottom to hide the hook shank, very cool! 8) 8) 8)

[davkrat]

Hey I grew up in Tracy, CA! graduated when there was still only one high school senior class. That town sure has changed. Anyways I always felt like flies were tied to catch fisherman and not fish. What's the point of tying a fly so the segments are on top of the hook where the fish can't see them? Apparently I wasn't the first one with that idea. They sure work for me though.