New Angles

I love old dry fly patterns, and the feeling of tradition when I tie and fish them with beautiful hand-crafted cane rods.

In his book The Dry Fly: New Angles, Gary LaFontaine described Joe’s Hopper, a popular mid-20th century American design. It remained his favourite for imitating bedraggled grasshoppers that had been drifting about for a while. A number of older Western US fly fishers told him that they also did well by weighting it and fishing it wet.

The fly acquired its name in the 1950s through its association with the great Joe Brooks. It evolved from the simpler Michigan Hopper created by Art Winnie in the early 1940s.

Joe’s Hopper is tied on a long-shank hook with a body of yellow yarn or chenille. A short loop of the body material extends out over the hook bend to help simulate the hopper’s body, and under the loop is a tail of dyed red hackle fibres to provide a hint of legs. A closely-trimmed brown hackle is palmered over the body, and lacquer-reinforced wings of brown mottled turkey quill are tied in. Finally a generous front hackle of mixed brown and grizzle is added. Although LaFontaine described the wings as ‘tent’ style, as in the original Michigan Hopper, I later discovered that in Joe’s Hopper one wing slip is tied in on each side of the hook, extending back alongside it almost like the hulls of a catamaran (see the example tied by Rick Keam).

JEFF’S VARIANT

One day I had been tying some dry flies with upright duck quill wings, using golden yellow silk tying thread. Pearsall’s Gossamer silk has an attractive satin sheen when it catches the light. On the spur of the moment, I decided to tie some Joe’s Hoppers on the same standard-shank hook model, using silk for the body instead of yarn or chenille, and leaving out the loop at the rear. Before palmering the body, I lacquered the silk to provide extra lustre and durability. Instead of the tent-wing, I tied in two matched turkey wings to sit more upright, and finished with a plain grizzle hackle.

Unintentionally, I’d changed Joe’s Hopper in several notable respects. It’s not Joe’s, but it’s certainly one of his offspring.

After the Tumut (FlyLife) Forum gathering, Freddy and I fished the upper Eucumbene River. This was the first of many streams where the Hopper would prove successful. During my first hour, six fish around the 2 lb mark took the fly within seconds of it landing. Freddy also caught his first brown trout on it. My confidence in the pattern rose very high. I was already contemplating how it would fish on my favourite streams along the Waterfall Way between Dorrigo and Ebor in the New England tablelands.

NEW ENGLAND SUCCESS

New England offers the closest trout streams to my home in Brisbane. We regard them as our ‘home’ waters even though we don’t actually live there. Many seasons see us wandering the landscape looking for those secret places we all want to find. Let me put you in our shoes the day we tried my creation.

It was a very long walk from the car, or at least it seemed that way, before I unhooked the hopper from the snake guide and made my first cast. The brownies here have the familiarity of old friends, and all the fly fishers who come here practise catch-and-release. The big fish are still there where you caught them last time, or close by, and the fishing is still good.

Our cane rods by Boris Gaspar are hand-crafted, classic designs. They can cast a beautiful line and have the grunt to handle the big fish. The easy, slow action of these fly rods allows precise, gentle casts.

The stream is a beaut. A solid rock bottom with slow runs, deep holes surrounded by large granite rocks that can form small waterfalls, and magnificent shallow riffles that run for hundreds of metres. Large brown trout love to feed on surface insects and forage for nymphs.

The pool where I like to start is deep and slow, with a waterfall at the head and an enticing bubble line running down close to large granite rocks. The cast is made from the other bank, where long buffalo grass gives good cover to the angler. A cast of 30 feet will get the dry drifting down the bubble line on the far side of the current. Throw a good aerial mend and the dry will drift down without any drag.

As the fly approaches the deep water, a rock ledge extends out from the bank. A large brown lives near this rock bar, and sure enough, it rose to my hopper. It looked like the same fish I had caught previously, and as before, it made several jumps and some big runs into the pool and along the weedy bank. Well-conditioned, he has striking markings — a deep golden hue with brilliant black dots around his gill covers. I quietly unhooked him and let him glide back into his pool.

Early morning or late afternoon is the best time to wander this stream, when the sun throws long shadows across the pools and gravel beds. The water is very shallow in these parts, and fish can be seen foraging with their backs breaking the surface. I was surprised at just how many browns were feeding in these areas, and spooked a couple of fine fish before I began to approach the crossings and riffles with a lot more care and attention. Stealth is the best tactic, and having confidence in your fly. A precise cast to the front or side of the fish with the Hopper, and they were happy to turn and take it.

A rolling mist is quite frequent in this valley, and at times follows the stream down, flooding the landscape with an impressionist light. But at such times the tannin-stained water makes fish difficult to see. When the trout are not rising, it helps to have a mate act as a spotter to direct your casts to the fish. They are certainly harder to catch and are often found in areas full of submerged logs and branches, but do come out to play in the shallows when the food is there. That makes for a lot of fun and frustration. The brownies in this stream are more than happy to leap out of the water several times during a fight and will try to snag you in the timber, under the rocks or in the weed beds. We lost several big fish to pulled hooks, broken tippets and sheer power. Memorable fights and encounters are common.

FISH IT WITH CONFIDENCE

In a size 12, this Joe’s Hopper variant is a fly you can fish with confidence here, or on any other stream, when the conditions are right. It has several strong trigger points, can be easily seen in the fast water and can stand the close inspection of a wary brown on quiet, still water.

Even outside hopper season, it is capable of drawing fish from the bottom of deep pools and diverting them from nymphing in the shallows.

JEFF’s (Joe’s) Hopper

HOOK: TMC 100, #12

Thread: Pearsall’s Gossamer Gold

Tail: Dyed red cock hackle

Body: PG Gold silk, palmered light brown cock hackle, trimmed

Wings: Mottled brown turkey feather

Hackle: Grizzle

After the light brown hackle is tied in at the tail, the Gold silk body is coated with Sally Hansen’s varnish. The hackle is then palmered with six wraps along the body and trimmed short. An extra cut of the hackle is made at a low angle to allow the wings to sit on top of the shank.