What Makes……

[Wildfisher]

A hopper such a good fly? OK, at daddy time I can see it. These buggers work all year though for wild fish and for stockies. What is it about them that makes them work so well? Some general impressionistic quality?

[haresear]

The legs are the trigger that turn the trout on. I'm sure of it.

Legs seem to say "look I'm food" as long as the fish are looking to the surface for their food.

Look at things like Turck's Tarantula, Madam X and the Chernobyl Ant. All are great attractor patterns and all have lovely legs :lol:.

Alex

[Pearly Invicta]

Try a peter ross hopper. That'll sort it.

[Malcolm]

I'm fairly sure that I've caught more fish on the hopper than any other fly over the past seven years or so. Sometimes when it doesn't work as a dry it has worked as a wet fly. I've used it in all sorts of colours and they all seem to work. The only consistent thing amongst them all is size - always size 10 - and the legs. BTW I always cut the hackle away from under the fly this seems to make a big difference.

Malcolm

[Wildfisher]

I've used it in all sorts of colours and they all seem to work.

I did some experiments with hoppers of different colours at Lochindorb last September. The colour did not seem to matter at all.

I always cut the hackle away from under the fly this seems to make a big difference.

This is what I do with then – got that tip from Allan Liddle,  Incidentally I usually buy hoppers as I just can't be bothered faffing around tying knots in legs. 

[haresear]

I just can't be bothered faffing around tying knots in legs. 

Rubber legs for me. Especially Fridays :lol:

Alex

[Wildfisher]

One thing I do wonder about is the legs. On the "classic hopper"  design they lie along the top and are not in the water. I wonder if the fish see them or does the bloody thing land upside down?

[deergravy]

Maybe a touch of the 'snowball' effect? Y'know, the more they're used, the more fish they catch?
They certainly have a buggy, edible looking quality,which might give them an edge over other flies, but I suspect much of their sucess is as much to do with confidence, and hence time in the water, as the deadly legs.

Pure conjecture, this, happy to be proved wrong!

Dave