For me and other dry-fly enthusiasts (and that’s putting it mildly, at least in my opinion), this month is the month. It’s “hopper time.”
Here in Idaho, our backcountry streams are in great shape–runoff is well past done, night-time temperatures are a bit chilly, whcih serves to keep our high-country streams cold. The warm summer sun has nurtured this season’s grasshoppers, beetles and ants to maturity. Add a touch of a breeze, and you have big, fat bugs on the water.
And trout love them. Which means I love them, too. And I love to tie foam hopper and terrestrial patterns—they’re generally pretty easy to tie, and they get the attention of big trout that are just waiting for that perfect meal to come floating by.
Check out the pattern above from Tim Flagler. The GFA (general foam attractor) Hopper is a great, buggy, easy-to-tie hopper that not only works on its own, but also works as an excellent indicator with a nymphy or a smaller dry fly trailing behind it.
Happy Hopper Time.
— Chris Hunt