good Grasshopper pattern and cricket patters

[stefanoflo]

looking for a good cricket and hopper Patters for the hot summer months
anyone have a really good suggestion???

[Mickey]

From personal experience. Dave's hopper, Yuba in July and August.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The Dave's Hoppers is the most popular and traditional one but lots of new foam ones too.


*One August Don Rotsma, Rick Jorgensen and I were on the Missouri River and in the afternoons the wind would blow dirt and hoppers off the high banks out onto the water. It was crazy good.....

**Bob Giannoni called the late summers in Montana "Hoppertunity".


***Wood River in Southern Oregon is a famous place for getting big trout on hoppers.

[DLJeff]

I'm with you Bill. Kind of partial to the older traditional patterns.

14161

But the foam patterns are faster to tie and flat longer.

[bigfly]

No offense guys......
But as someone who has fished a hopper for almost fifty years in the Sierras, I can say Burk's spent hopper is the best of the bunch.
I once did a one hopper contest with a guy who tied a Sierra blue (locals pattern)....I ran a Dave's.....
Lost by a large margin.......it still pains me........
Fish that are pressured don't believe in the classics......they've seen it.....and it doesn't look like the real ones up here....
Catch a local hopper and match it, it's the best way to fool the big guys. (I don't target little ones...)
Largest Bow I've landed on the T (10lb), was on a Burk's.....skinny and blue/gray with a broken leg......
They aren't popping yet up here....but that gives you time to tie them up!

Jim

[Ralph]

I second Jim's opinion for the Truckee. Burk's almost always out fishes other patterns. It is a fantastic fly. In the Rockies, a pink Chubbie wins by a mile. Makes no sense but it has been my experience hands down.

[bigfly]

Hey Ralph...
I see pink ones on Donner summit......
I have a collection of many colors...
Black soot, gray, blue, green, brown,and, pale speckled tan.....
They run the gamut, from sz12 to sz2.......
Why would I run just one size pattern or color?
Hoping to get a fish, isn't my approach.....
Giving them what they want is the best way..........

Jim

[Ralph]

Agreed! No need to hamstring your fishing to a one fly contest.

[Bob G]

I live in Northern Colorado, I fish Colorado and Southwestern Montana, and as a prior member stated, pink and foam. Since I have the pleasure of fishing an hour or two almost every day that weather permits, in recent years the Thunder Thigh Hopper in Pink is my hands down favorite. I primarily fish a size 10, and if I get a refusal, I then show the refuser a size 14 or 16 Harrop Black Beetle...this approach has resulted in my 2 largest fish in recent years, as well as a pile of pleasure.

Billy mentioned “Hoppertunity” which I picked up from a Dave Whitlock Outdoor Life article from the 1960s. Dave wrote the article and designed the glorious Dave’s Hopper, and our gang developed the Hoppertunity Song in Dave’s Honor (You don’t want to know). In 1973, when I lived in Bozeman, we drove down to West Yellowstone and visited Bud Lilly’s Trout Shop. Bud had just received a batch of Dave’s Hopper flies that were tied for Whitlock’s Tying Service by a few southern bass boys. Those flies were beautifully tied, very durable-tied on a fantastic Herter’s English light-wire hook with a beautiful point and a bend that never opened up. Like most students money was a scarcity. Nevertheless, I bought every size 10 (maybe 20) in the bin...my love affair with Dave’s Hopper had started.

Best, Bob

[bigfly]

Bob/Bill, should say I have no issue with a Dave's......
I once fished it exclusively...but, it doesn't seem to fool jaded fish like we have up here.
Even on back country fish I have better stats when I to fish the hoppers closest to the ones in the area, whatever they look like!
I once ran into Andy on local water, and he asked me how it was going....I showed him a "blackened" Burk's. ....
His tie, with a Sharpy adjustment on the water....the fish wouldn't eat his fly as it was tied......but they loved it after I
tweeked it. His client's face betrayed his horror at my defiling Andy's fly.....
Andy smiled because he knew, just one will not do.....
Since they take on local color...if there is pink granite around, there will be pink ones......


Jim