Hoppers with Foam

Late Summer is Hopper Time...Get Ready!

I'll warn you now; the hopper is my favorite pattern. It's big, I can see it, it's fun to cast and present it with a plop, I have fun tying them and the fish just adore the big, juicy, summer delight. It's perfect for my less-than-perfect casting habits. The pattern presented in this article is non-typical in my cache of fly patterns, however. This one uses a glued-on, pre-shaped foam body. Hence, the thesis of this article.

I've experimented with a couple of dozen different hopper and cricket patterns, all of which will catch trout. But this one, my adaptation from a pattern that George Cik (true inventor of the Brassie) gave me, is one that I can tie readily and with minimal materials. Plus, the darn thing just plain floats well. It looks real and outlasts those pesky little toothed 24" summer browns. Not that I know, I've never caught a brown that big on a hopper, but I've had a hopper last a whole season of bluegill
fishing. Granted it looked tattered and water-weary, but that's the goal, isn't it?!

How A Trout Sees A Hopper

I once attended a fly show where Dave Whitlock was presenting his slide-show and studies on hoppers and hopper imitations. That's all I needed to spark the artistic inventor in me. Dave's Hopper uses a deerhair body. That's fine until the body absorbs water and sinks lower and lower with each cast. I started thinking how I could incorporate a better material; one that would last longer, farther, better. Dave taught me a few very important observations of summer hoppers.
One: how they float in the water
and
Two: what color is the hopper; on the underside.

A trout sees three distinct features about a hopper floating by. The trout notices the general outline of the fly, thus the long body and back legs become an important feature to mimic. Secondly, the trout notices the underbody color. A bright green underbody, like those of some commercially tied hoppers certainly doesn't match the pale yellow color of the ones I see in late summer. More over, the ones I see have a green-grey topside, they aren't pale yellow all-around. The third thing that trout consider is how the hopper floats in the water. This observation was the most single important fact Dave Whitlock imparted upon me. Hoppers don't ride high in the water. Hoppers don't ride under the surface film. Think for a moment, if you were floating down a river, waiting to be someone's lunch, how would you float? Head up (so you could breath) and body submerged. That's how a hopper floats. It's butt and abdomen is submerged and the thorax/head is above water. It's this observation that led me to modifying the Foam Hopper fly accordingly.

Anatomy of A Hopper

Breaking Down The Hopper's Anatomy

1. abdomen
2. thorax
3. head
4. mouthparts
5. antenna
6. compound eyes
7. front wings
8. hind wings
9. abdominal spiricals
10. legs
11. tympanum
12. thoracic spiracles
13. pronotum

A hopper hails from the order orthoptera, which includes ground hoppers, burrowing hoppers, mole crickets, katydids, household crickets, and locusts. There is about 20,000 species known around the world and have been dated as far back as the Upper Carboniferous age, some 300 million years ago. A hopper is described as being hemimetabolous or having a nymphal stage that looks like small adults
and no pupal stage. That's good for us tyers as one pattern in different sizes pretty much covers the life-cycle of othropteras. The ensifara suborder which includes grasshoppers, groundhoppers and locusts and the Caelifera suborder which includes crickets will be the focus of the flytyers enigma.

The Grasshopper's Head

The ensifara sub-order have small stout antennae, generally about 1/3 the body length. The oval oblong eyes are typically a darker shade of the head color and are very pronounced, taking up the upper 1/2 of each side of the head. The two large eyes, which detect movement, are accompanied by 3 smaller eyes which detect changing light conditions. Protruding back from the head is a large plate, called a pronotum, covering the first thoracic segment (prothorax). This plate is important as it protects the hinge portion of the wings.

The Body

The fore-wings are toughened to form the tegmina while the back section folds fan-like and is supple. Just inside of the middle pair of legs is located a small breathing hole. Hoppers do not breathe from their mouthparts. Females have a well-developed ovipositor and can be visible in some cricket species. The body is long and the tail-ends are tapered and pointed (an important feature to consider as a flytyer). Typically, hoppers have very pronounced and over sized femurs, perfect for jumping and launching them into flight. In measurement, a hopper can jump 50-100 times the length of its' body.

The Birth

Our little grasshopper most likely started out in a cluster of eggs in a pithy stalk of a broken plant or in the soil. The cluster of eggs resembled a dropping of molten polystyrene. He laid dormant over the winter, and in some species cases, over two winters, taking 2-3 years to hatch. The nymphs first hatch out in sort of a safety suit which keeps all of their limbs close to their body as they protrude from the frothy egg-sack or from underground. The hatch process is quite interesting. They pump up their head with little bursts of blood and as the head-size increases, the egg sack membrane or soil is extruded away. Once broken free from the obstructions, they shed their little protective shuck and immediately search for food. Other species may "spit" on the egg sack, causing it to deteriorate. During the first few hours, they are pale white and are still somewhat clumsy. After only a few hours they obtain full coloration. Henry II most likely will grow to be between 1 and 3 inches and will live an insect eternity of 3 to 12 months. During their life span, hoppers may molt 5-6 times.

While most of the Orthoptera are omnivorous (plant and animal eating), the focus of the flytyer should be on the herbovorous, or just plant eating variety. It is estimated that while in the nymphal stage, they eat twice times their body weight. They also make for the perfect slumber-hound flyfisher as they need light and warmth to be active. Hoppers remain quiet and still for most of the night. They prefer grassland over wooded land and tend to cluster in greater numbers near water, where the air condenses at night and deposits dew in the morning. This becomes their source of water for the day.

When A Hopper Speaks, Everyone Listens

Most species, particularly crickets utilize 3 different sorts of "songs".
1) calling songs which are species-specific to call far away females,
2) courtship songs while the male and female usually have antennae contact, and
3) aggressive songs, generally male-to-male.
In fact, the songs are so well prized that the males species are kept in cages in some Eastern countries, just to hear the soothing sounds. How are the sounds made? Good question. Most of the species rub a forewing against another. In detail, the top forewing has a ridge of "teeth" on it's under side. This is called the bow. It is rubbed against the topside of the underwing which contains a strengthened vein, this is called the scraper. In effect, the hopper has a built-in violin. This begs the question: If a 400 year old Stradivarius violin is worth $1.5 million, what's a 300 million year old hopper worth? I know, strange thinking.

In 1992, R.B. Toms found that in some crickets, the frequency of the chirp is directly related to the outside temperature. The formula to convert chirps to degrees Celcius is different for each species and remains accurate for that species, regardless of geography around the world.

Typical Coloration Patterns

Take a close look at grasshoppers sometime. The photo at the beginning of this article is representative. Typically, the ones where I fish have a pale yellow underside, a green to bright lime green topside, a grey underwing and a brownish-grey top wing. The head is hard-looking and very much a prominent feature of the body. The antennae are highly noticeable and the legs are very pronounced. There are other hoppers that I've seen that have a cream underside and a brown topside while others are
all mostly tan-grey. Take notice of the hoppers around you and tie suggestive coloration patterns around them.

Would Ya' Look at Those Legs

A hopper has very pronounced hind legs, something all hopper patterns should mimic. And about tying hopper legs: I used to think it was a pain in the neck, but I didn't know the right method. I avoided using pheasant tail legs because I hated knotting the little critters. So, instead, I used rubber legs. They didn't quite mimic the true outline of the pronounced legs of a hopper, however. In comparing rubber legs to pheasant tail legs, the pheasant tail wins hands down. They're lighter and more suggestive of the hopper outline. More on tying the legs in a moment.

Building Your Hopper

Other than the hook, thread and vise, the materials needed are quite simple and readily available. [super glue, light deerhair, turkey tail, foam strips, pheasant tail and a paint brush with dark nylon bristles]
Before you start, liberally coat a 1/2" wide and 2" long section of mottled turkey tail with clear nail polish. Don't cut the section from the feather stem! Leave it intact until it's dry. Use your fingers to wipe the excess and work in the remaining polish. This will become the wing back.