Fly of the Month: ThingAmaHopper

This is a fantastic day! Well worth a drive to check out.

 

By Dean Myers

It is the middle of summer, the grass is tall along the creek and there is a hatch coming off. Well, it isn’t your normal mayfly hatch that you need a 5 weight or less to fish and need a delicate presentation. It is time to fish the hopper hatches along the creek banks. Fishing with a grass hopper pattern can be a lot of fun. You don’t have to be nice and gentle and you can use it to fish for a lot of different species. If your trout waters are too warm, by all means, hit some warm water streams for bass and pan fish with a hopper. A lot of different species enjoy the tasty meal of a hopper. The other thing hopper patterns are great for is being used in a hopper-dropper rig. By all means, drop off the hook bend a second fly.

Here is a pattern that I have tied for this year. A lot of people have been tying hopper patterns with foam. They are easy and they float well. Here is another option that I decided to try. The company that created the ThingAmaBobber has a new product that I really like. It is called the ThingAmaBody. It is an extremely easy product to use, looks great and floats forever. Another great thing about this product is you can make it whatever color you need it to be. It takes markers really well. So you can get really creative with how you want it to look.

When tying your hopper pattern you want to try and match the naturals. If you look at grass hoppers, it is important to see that the underside color is not always the same as the side and top color. When you are looking down on a grass hopper, remember that this is not how the fish will see it. They will be seeing the profile and color of the underside of it. Of the proportions, the head is usually about 1/3 of the body size.

Read detailed instructions here