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 Use super glue. Good Luck! I'll take a few as a payment

[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


Craven's Charlie Boy Hopper - the simple version that sparked the collaberation for the BVC Hopper, BC = Barr and Craven's Hopper


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.


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/gigharbor.../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!

[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!