Claret Hopper

The Hopper is one of my favorite dry flies because it is so versatile you can tie it on a heavy hook so it fishes sub surface, you can pull it, figure of eight it and fish it static. A great fly for September early October. This is my own variation and as with all fly tying you are only limited by your imagination.

The first thing to do is select your hook I am using a Kamasan B175 size ten, I tie most of my flies on these hooks if you want a more buoyant pattern you can use a lighter hook but I find once the finished article is ginked up it floats fine.

I am using copper wire as the rib on this occasion but again you can use what you like.

 

I sometimes use a pritt stick on the thread before dubbing the seals fur onto it. This helps to stick the dubbing to the thread and also helps with the floatation properties.

In this case I have dubbed a small amount of bright red onto the thread first followed by the claret in this way I will have a hot red butt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like to leave a lot of room at the front around a third of the hook length this allows plenty of room for the legs and hackle.

Bring the rib up over the dubbing and dispose of the excess.

 

 

 

 

I use a wire brush to tease out the dubbing fibers giving a scruffy effect to the body. You can use a piece of male velcro this does the same job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tying the legs, there are many schools of thought on this you can be lazy and buy some pre tyed legs press gang your wife into tying your legs. I pre tie my legs when I have some slack time I like to use two strands of pheasant tail and just one knot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tie the legs in I try and tie mine two either side of the hook shank and so that they will sit on or in the surface film when fished dry. Some like the legs to come out the top some the bottom again it's what suits you.

 

 

 

For the hackle I used to use any old cape but have been converted into using a generic cape you get a much neater and buoyant fly. When I select the feather I like it long as I want the hackle to be as bushy as possible.

You can see from this picture that I have used a good deal of the feather to build a really bushy hackle. All that needs doing now is to trim the hackle feather and tidy up the head. A touch of hard as nails to secure the head and bobs your uncle.

 

The fly should now look something like this.