Mike's Tuoloumne Hopper

by

March 2003

Picture of Finished Hopper
Materials
thread6x; tan
hookdry fly hook
2x long, size 6, 8, 10, 12 (e.g. Tiemco 5212)
bodytan foam
size for #6 hook: 1/16" (1.5 mm) thick; 1/2" (12 mm) wide; 1 3/8" (35 mm) long
winghen saddle or pheasant church window
treated as described in tying instructions
legsdouble segment of rubber hackle material
hacklebrown

Tying Instructions

Start of Hopper
  1. Start thread at the eye, wind to the bend.
  2. Set a loop, as for a dubbing loop, and take the thread back to the eye.
  3. Rub the loop with wax and twist it so it stays together—this simplifies later steps.
Picture of hook with foam body in place
  1. The ends of the foam body are cut on a bevel of 45 degrees so that the body viewed from the thinnest dimension looks like a parallelogram. This will give the body a boat shaped tail and a cupped head which will pop when pulled.
  2. Lay the body alongside the hook, and allowing a little room at eye, estimate where the bend of the hook should pass through the body and punch a hole with a bodkin. Take the hook out of the vise, put the point through the hole and put the hook back in the vise.
  3. Next, the body is glued folded around the hook with cyanoacrylate glue a.k.a. crazy glue, Zap-a-Gap. Be very sparing with the glue—too much and it won't stick right. Be sure that the loop is captured within the folded body and that the loop passes out the rear end of the folded foam body.
Picture of the high used to make the body
  1. The body is segmented with the hitch shown above. The green part passing under the red locks the hitch in place. A crocheting hook is a useful tool for making this hitch.
Picture of body with several segments in place
  1. As the segmentation progresses, an upward curve of the rear of the body will happen when the hitches are tightened.
Picture of body with segmentation done.
  1. Continue segmenting to the eye. Make the next to last segement longer than the others, and the final segment, which will be the eyes of the hopper, short.
  2. Tie off the loop at the eye; whip finish.
  3. Restart the thread at the back of the next to last segement.
Picture of fly with wing in place
  1. Here the wing is shown tied in place. The wing is made from a hen back or pheasant church window feather. The wing is prepared by coating it PVC pipe cement and plastering it to a piece of plate glass. The cement goes on thick and gloppy but dries thin and tough. Do a bunch of feathers at once. The process is pretty fumy, so do it and leave it to dry in a well ventilated place. When it's dry, strip the feather off the glass and trim it to shape. It will be quite tough and can be cut anywhere and still hold together.
Picture of the legs
  1. The legs are made of doubled segments of rubber hackle, knotted with an overhand loop as shown. A little spit helps to draw the knot up tight.
Picture of fly with legs tied on
  1. Tie the legs on as shown at the same place as the wing. Put the knots for the knees at the bend of the hook
Picture of setup of legs
  1. Split the doubled leg segments forward of the tie-in.
  2. Fold the lower halves back and wrap thread inbetween these the the upper halves to separate and force the middle legs back.
Picture of hackling and finish of hopper
  1. Attach and wrap the hackle, two turns between the front and middle legs and two between the middle and back legs.
  2. Tie off the hackle and whip finish at that point.
  3. Split the back legs below the knots and cut off one of the pieces.
  4. Paint eyes on the front segment with a black felt pen.
  5. Apply head cement and it's done.