Foam Hopper

[Michael Brady]

Anyone who has been tying foam hoppers for awhile I want you opinion on this.

Do you dub over the top of your foam body or do you leave just the colored foam?

I have tied both ways, the dub over the foam works ( I already caugh fish on that pattern) but I was curious as the best and easiest way to tie them, without dubbing and just using the foam color seems easiest but does it work?

[cabezon]

Hi Mike,

For fast water, I'm less fastidious that the hopper look realistic and more interested in floatation and general outline. I cut thin strips of foam (canary yellow, olive, or tan) and wrap that for the abdomen. If you hit a few different craft shops, you will be amazed at the colors that you can find (though I'm still looking for a decent gray); you could also color the foam with markers. See the October caddis that I tied with marked foam for the summer steelhead swap in the gallery. I don't see any advantage to dubbing over the foam, unless it is over the tied-down end and you're making a dubbed head as in a stimulator.

I top the foam abdomen with some deer hair for a wing and then make a spun deer hair head. Then it is just a matter of trimming the head into a blocky shape. Between the foam and the spun head, it floats great. You could add in legs, but I haven't; I'm not sure that it is worth the effort in the places where I fish in the middle of summer. This fly is very effective in attracting the attention of large cutts in the St. Joe, although they may be thinking that it is a fleeing sculpin or even a stonefly rather than a hopper. If the fish had more time to examine the fly, I might add in a knotted pheasant fiber leg, but no much else.

Steve