Time

I waive good bye to fall, for the most part, on a high note, with bugs on my waders and slime on my hands.  I never thought I'd fish midges so much in September and October. Hell, I'm sort of getting used to it again. I thought I would miss the Beaverhead in October, which I've fished in the fall for a long time, but now closes Oct. 1.  While it would have been nice, I really didn't need it this month.  I didn't make it back to Silver, or the late month drives to the Boise and Owyhee.  I keep driving right past my great home waters of western Wyoming.

However, there's that hopper day on the Fork I'll remember forever.  I still can't believe what I saw. Then two days on the creeks completely alone. That doesn't happen very often, especially on nice days. Finally, that huge pod of non-stop rising fish on that final morning on the MO. It looked like the MO all right! It all worked out OK. Never enough days, but as they say, you can't stop time.  You can't save it or get it back either.  The best you can do is spend as much of it as you can standing in a trout river, or on a tarpon skiff, living on fly fishing time.  

Oh, and in case anyone is counting, 244 days until the Ranch opens!

Hoppin'

I haven't tied this many flies in a 30-day period since, um, probably never.  I used to try and crank 'em out when I first really started tying 43 years ago, and sometimes when I was rowing clients down the Platte and Green back in the day.  I can't remember sitting down daily/nightly for a month straight though.  

A month ago today, I went in to have a chronic, recurring hernia repaired, yet again.  No lifting or exertion for 5 weeks they said.  What's a fly-addict to do in trying to maintain some level of sanity during what has turned out to be one of the nicest, most fishable, 30-day runs of fall weather in history?  Every box and container I have is swimming in foam, fur, and feathers. The sanity part hasn't really panned out too well though.

There was one bug earlier in the season though that I told myself had to be improved upon.  That hopper day on the Fork, when the water was covered with 'em, was killer fishing even with what I had.  But, I really didn't have "the" bug for that slow flat water.  Sure, Dave's Hopper, Joe's Hopper, Letort Hopper, Charlie Boy, Schroeder's, and countless others are functional patterns.  Just not quite a match for what I was seeing though.  Upon searching and searching every hopper pattern I could, I still didn't really find it.  I told myself that day that I would try and come up with something this winter.

I made careful observations that day, and wrote 'em down just in case.  I watched and collected dozens and dozens of hoppers on the water, and there were a few striking things I saw that the patterns didn't have.  

First, the color.  These hoppers were segmented, smooth, and light in color.  Not yellow, not tan, not dubbed, but a smooth, very pale cream.  The color of light elk hair, which is probably one reason why Mike Lawson's Henry's Fork Hopper is tied with it.  OK, but I hate tying with hair.

The most prominent and obvious characteristic of the hoppers on the water that day were the front legs.  Not the big kickers, but the four shorter, light colored legs at the front of the insect.  They were moving constantly, both when I picked up a hopper from the water, and while they were dead-drifting on the water.  Speaking of dead-drifting, all the bugs I saw, hundreds of them, were all dead drifting.  They were not skittering, trying to hop, fluttering their wings, or moving in any way except for those little front legs.  They looked and acted dead until I grabbed one from the water.  That's what all the fish were attacking.

The wings were covering the segmented bodies like a tent. No movement. The hind legs were just stationary, positioned nearly parallel to the body and hugging it fairly close.  The lower part of the legs were positioned down, hanging in the water.  They were not sticking out like an "X" from the sides of the body, and they were not round.  Many of the hopper patterns I see today have rubber legs fastened to the side of the body sticking out at 45 degrees or greater.

I could not find an existing pattern that had every property I observed.  A round segmented body, cream in color, with a wing tented over the back of the body, with kicker legs positioned like the natural, and front legs positioned below the thorax and moving. 

I played with hair and foam bodies, and settled for foam due to its buoyancy,  proper color, ease of segmentation, and ease of use.  Its tied Charlie Boy style (Craven), glued to the coated shank for no-spin durability and a round segmented look.  I tied some with knotted rubber legs, knotted pheasant fibers, and some molded "hopper legs" I had from another era.  The hopper legs just look so real.  I still may substitute something more natural, but hey, I'm using foam, so all rules are out.

For the front legs, I had soft hackle in mind from my first thoughts that day.  I have a hen neck with a close color of soft hackle, and that's all I tried.  It moves!  I even wrapped some hackle on some of the existing flies I have because, again, that seemed to be the most distinguishing feature I saw.

I wanted to give it a wing, although to me it seems like the least significant part of the fly from all observations.  I tied some with poly yarn, medallion sheeting, razor foam, turkey feathers, and various other soft-hackle feathers. The bushy hair-wings I see are way overkill for my needs. I settled on a single pheasant rump feather for its ease of tie-in and sparse silhouette from the trout's view.

Now I just need to wait for mid- to late summer and see how it works, if I'm ever even lucky enough to see the Fork covered in hoppers again.  I'll give it some shots on windy days next summer, even if the bugs aren't on the water.  If the fly is a decent representation, it should work when served up to fish later in the season because the trout remember, an it has to beat the shit out of trying to eat a thousand tricos.

Sparse, color, silhouette?  Legs are a bit exaggerated, but I can trim shorter/sparser if needed.   I believe the triggering or "selling" feature should be obvious.  I'll tie it cleaner.  It'll evolve like other flies.  For now I'll fish it.

The underside.  

I like tying riverside, in the trailer, better.  Everything's close and ready in here though.