Hopper time is a time that many anglers look forward to with great anticipation. Whether you are traveling out west to fish some of the larger meadows or staying closer to home and fishing some of the fabled farm ponds in the area, hopper’s are must to have in your box. Tie them in every color imaginable and get ready for some explosive action. With the fly being made mostly of buoyant materials this is not a fly that you will spend all day drying out.  They will support a large nymph for dropper situations and are spectacular on rough water sections.

Materials Required:

Hook: Tiemco TMC200R Sz 10-16   CWO# 2400

Thread:    Uni Thread Dark Brown 8/0    CWO# 19246

Body:   3mm Foam Brown & Tan   CWO# 1267, 1337

Wing:    Bleached Elk Hair   CWO# 1257

Legs:   Tarantula Legs Brown   CWO# 9168

Eyes:  Prisma Marker Black    CWO# 14273

Anchor thread and create a generous thread base. Do not worry about make the wraps perfect, the thread will be concealed in the end.

Cut 2 (1/2″) strips of 3mm foam. One brown and one tan. Take the tan strip and trim one end to a point. Tie in foam above bend of the hook. Let the foam hang over the back 1/2″.

Take your brown piece of foam and trim the same point as you did on the tan piece. Line up the points and tie in the brown foam,

Next, carefully pull both pieces of foam back slightly and wrap your thread forward a 1/4″ and apply a drop of head cement on the thread. Release the tan foam and tie in. Squeeze foam segment to secure.

Apply a drop of cement on top of the first segment of tan foam created and release the brown foam and tie in directly on top of your previous wraps.

Repeat the previous two steps again to create another body section out of the foam. Make sure to repeat the cementing steps.

Next trim only the piece of brown foam approximately 1/4″ in front of your last wraps.

*TIP* make small trims until you reach desired length

Pull back tan foam and wrap thread to behind the hook eye. Apply a drop of cement and tie down the tan piece of foam. Squeeze. Take thread diagonally across the back of segment to the  previous wraps.

Cut a medium sized clump of bleached Elk hair and stack to even up the tips.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         *TIP: Try adding Organza or Crystal Splash!

Once even, measure clump on the fly to make sure you have the right length before you tie it in.

Once the Elk hair has been measured, make a couple of wraps and look again to make sure it lines up like you want. You can always back up and adjust. Once sure cinch down on the third wrap to flair the hair

Once tied in trim the butt ends of the hair(towards the eye) and make several more wraps at more of an angle try to slide in between the individual hairs.             *Don’t trim the butts to short or they will slide.

Take 4 strands of Tarantula legs and tie in 2 on each side of the fly. Stay over top of the same wrap area that you have been using. Add cement on top of the hair which will lock in the hair and the legs.

Quickly pull the tan foam strip back over top of the hair and previous wraps and tie down. Trim foam over top of hair and leave 1/4″.  Whip finish and cement once more.

Trim thread and with a black permanent marker make 2 black spots on each side of the tan foam that we just pulled back over top for eyes.

Great western fly for trout or warm water species anywhere. Tie in multiple colors to match different species. Also a great pattern on local Delayed Harvest streams tied in bright colors!