Mini Hoppers
Also available for purchase in the Arizona Wanderings Shop
I started tying this fly in the summer of 2010 for the small streams that I normally fish in Arizona. I was tying much larger hoppers, which are great flies, but are just too big to be splatting in these creeks. Giving credit where credit is due, I found the pattern on backpackflyfishing.com which is written and organized by Jason Klass and the original video is here. He ties the fly as a balloon caddis and his flies are extremely well tied and much better looking than mine. For my purposes, I added some legs to the pattern and bolstered it with several dots of superglue to give it a little more durability. I also found that by using a little thicker piece of foam, the hopper will float a much better in the rough water. Over the summer, I have experimented with different colors and found several that really produce well for me. The white, yellow, red, and bright green are perfect for high visibility when you are using the fly as an indicator for a dry/dropper setup and the brown and black work well when you are working some calmer water and can see your fly. With so many terrestrials in the air, this fly is more of an attractor pattern than a specific fly the fish are keying in on. Please let me know how it works for you.
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