Trout Fishing: Mastering the Hopper Fly for Big Catches

  They say that if you want to bring the big trout up of the bottom you should use a terrestrial fly that resembles a Grasshopper. Big trout love them and seem to lose their natural caution and get very excited and aggressive when a hopper plops on the surface near them.

   
  Hoppers seem to crush land into the water during mating or flying in windy days. Some are flushed into the water by heavy rain storms. I found that the best time to fish with hoppers is around noon till 5 or 6 pm, when the weather is warm and windy. When hoppers hit the water they make a noisy, splashy Plop. Since they are not designed to float on the surface they struggle trying to make it back to the shore. It is here that the drowning insect is taken by the hunger trout.
  A deadly way to take these trout is to use a hopper fly and add a split shot 10 or 12 inches up the leader from the fly or use a weighted hopper. Try fishing these hopper flies close to grassy banks on a natural drift, adding the odd kick and swim animation. Be sure to pinch the barb down because trout hit these flies very aggressively and deep.

   
  Fly shops sell lots of different types of hoppers, usually in sizes 12, 10, 8, and 6 which I find best for most situations. Those that have a low profile, distinctive kicker legs, and either yellow, tan, green, or olive undersides are what most trout seem to want.
  So I made a hopper fly to imitate these trout loving grasshoppers, I called it the ?Earplug Hopper? because I use a green earplug as part of the body.

 
  The earplug will take in water which gives the low profile of a drowning insect, when it is to wet squeeze some out. Here is the video on how to make this fly.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBnJ6wgcJS0 

                                                                  ?Fish-on! Cookster