# 29 Hopper Dropper

“Hopper Dropper? Sounds Like a Dance Move, But It’ll Catch Fish.”

As many of you are currently learning to fly fish, and are learning new things about this sport, you will hear many terms that may sound very foreign to you. For example, you might have read or heard of the term “Hopper Dropper”?.

What the heck is this, some sort of term for a dance, or laundry, no it is simple a way of mixing both dry fly fishing and nymph fishing at the same time.

Many years ago, I was approached by a man and was asked if I would be willing to guide his 80-year-old Grandfather.

I told him that would not be a problem, he then explained his grandfather was legally blind. The man explained his grandfather has been fly fishing his entire life, was a very skilled fly caster, but was unable to see enough to tie on his own flies, and had a hard time being able to see the fly on the water.

I talked with several of my fellow guides, and we had decided that the best way to get this man onto fish was to use a “hopper dropper” set-up. I had tied a few special grasshopper flies that had a larger amount of bright orange yarn and foam in the body for maximum buoyancy so both myself and hopefully my client would be able to see the fly while it was on the water.

The reason I set up the bright hopper is because I then attached a 24” piece of 6X tippet to the end of the size 8 hopper. During this time of the season the dry flies of choice were blue wing olive mayflies that were in the sizes 20 to 22. Flies this small are hard if not nearly impossible to see, even on a good day, but to be legally blind!

I attached a size 20 blue wing olive dry fly to the 24” tippet that was connected to the very bright size 8 hopper and told the gentleman to begin to cast. He was very skilled at casting, so we worked as a team.

I was able to get him to aim his casting in a direction and distance and make correction like “2 feet to the left, or 3 feet further”. By using the high vise hopper, he was able to see the hopper very faintly, so he had a basic idea of where his fly was, but I used my eyes to watch for the eventual rise near the hopper, and on occasion the hopper would get the eat. As a team we could watch the “dry dropper” rig float calmly down the current, and if I saw a rise I would simply tell this man to raise his rod.

During the course of this afternoon using this technique, we were able to work as a team and land several very respectable trout. By utilizing this 2-fly system you will be able to greatly expand your quiver of skills and hopefully increase your success on the water.

Okay, nice story but still, what’s a “hopper dropper”

If you have read some of my prior posts, we discussed fishing with nymphs and being able to detect the strike. To do this we employ a strike indicator, or if you like bobber. All these are merely tools to help detect the strike. The “hopper dropper” or “dry dropper” is exactly the same, except we are using a high floating, high vise dry fly as the means to detect the strike.

Using a hopper dropper, you are using a grasshopper or other high vise, high floating fly, and attaching 12-36” of tippet to the bend of the hopper. Most people then use a small, weighted nymph, like a small bead-headed fly which will hang under the surface of the hopper, working sub-surface. When a fish takes in the small nymph, the floating hopper will dip below the surface, alerting you of a strike.

The bonus of this system is that you will very often have a fish that will take the hopper instead of the nymph. You can see this is literally a “win-win” type of fishing.

What It’s called the “dry hopper”

If you have read and understand the concept of using a hopper dropper system as a way to employe a grasshopper fly as a type of indicator, then you will be able to understand the next version of this concept.

Like the example in my story of the elderly gentleman using a hopper and a dry, you can use this same type of set-up if you need to use small flies. Fishing with small flies can be very challenging, since the size of the fly and the distance, bubbles on the water, reflection, glare, or just old eyes, (in my case).

So, how do you see a size 24 dry fly 45 feet away? Simple, you tie it to a grasshopper. By attaching a piece of tippet 12-36” long to the shank of the hook and then attach your size 24 dry fly. You can then simply cast and fish the high vise grasshopper. As you are fishing the hopper, simply watch what I call the hula-hoop around the fly. If you see a fish rise in a hula hoop size circle (about 24”) anywhere around that grasshopper, simple raise the rod. If a fish is on the tiny dry fly, your rod will stop, and fish on, if not you simply re-cast your hopper and resume fishing.

Addendum:

There is always a catch to using a dry hopper set-up. You need to be sure that the hopper or indicator fly is not too large to scare the heck out the fish. So, people will use it instead of a hopper, maybe a size 14 Adams parachute, or a Humpy. Any high floating dry fly will work as long as “you” can see it.

I have used this type of set-up so many times with great results. I’ve spent thousands upon thousands of hours on the water, starring at microscopic, tiny balls of feather and fluff, and even I will use a dry dropper rig when my old eyes act up.

Some areas where this set-up works incredibly well is very small streams. If you are going to nymph these pools of tiny treasures, then “plopping” a big strike indicator will blow-up your small pool and scare all of the fish in these small pockets. Instead try using the 2-fly system with a dry fly and a small nymph. This way when you send your little morsal of goodness into these pockets of skittish little fish, you will not blow up the pool and will be rewarded with some of these little treasures.

Equipment:

You will not need to use any special equipment for this technique; you will not need to rush out and buy new stuff (unless you want to). If you have a fly rod, reel, line leader, you have 95% of what you need.

In my fly box I keep about 3 or 4 flies just for this use. I will give you a list of flies that I use for the hopper dropper, because these flies float very well, and are easy to see from a distance.

·        Morrish hopper size 10

·        Chubby Chernobyl size 8

·        Amy’s ant size 8

·        Parachute Adams size 12

·        Parachute PMD size 12

·        Humpy size 12

This list is no way intended for you to go and fill a fly box with all of the flies on this list, again it’s only a suggestion. If you have a favorite pattern by all means go ahead and us it, as long as it floats, and “you” can see it.

The hopper dropper:

If you are not going to use a small dry fly then the next “very popular” method is the “hopper dropper”. The set up is the same except instead of using a small dry fly, you will use a small bead head fly, like a Zebra midge, or Bead head hare’s ear. The reason you need us a small, weighted fly is so that the fly will sink just below the surface of the water, and fish sub-surface below the floating grasshopper.

This is a very productive way to fish, because very often the fish are not willing to come to the surface to eat a dry fly but will gladly eat a small offering just under the surface of the water. If you see an insect hatching on the surface of the water but no fish are actively rising to the surface to feed, then feed them a hopper dropper rig and see what happens.

Leader set up:

If you ask 10 fly fishermen how they set up their leaders and tippet for a hopper dropper rig, you will more than likely get 10 different answers. I will give you the basics. Feel free to change it anyway you want, for the fishing situation you are in. There is no hard-set rules, just the basic concept.

Normally I like a long leader, so I will use a 9 ft 3x leader attached to my line with a nail knot. Then I will attach 18” of 4x tippet to the end of the leader, this is the tippet I will attach my grasshopper to. Once the hopper is tied to the tippet, I will add 12-36” of tippet to the bend of the hopper hook, (see illustration). The dropper tippet will vary on the size of the dropper fly, but I will usually use 5X for the dropper, and 6X for a dry fly.

That is, it, it’s that simple, you don’t need anything fancy, just a hopper and tippet and a second fly.

I hope this post will help you learn a new style of fly fishing, and again if you have any questions or comment please feel free to reach out to me.

Cheers

Gary aka LaMachine

Any questions or comments feel free to reach out to me.