Bodkin / Patterns

Dave's Hopper -Foam Body

Terrestrial · Trout · Advanced · 1 version

Reference Recipe

  • Hook 3x-long dry-fly hook, 8-12
  • Thread Tan or yellow 6/0

Materials

  • Tail Red buzzer wrap (Deer hair tuft, short)
  • Body Yellow mcflylon (2mm foam strip)
  • Body hackle Brown hackle (One feather, palmered and trimmed)
  • Underwing Yellow mcflylon (Poly or deer hair, optional)
  • Wing Mottled turkey (Lacquered quill section)
  • Legs Yellow/brown barred rubber legs (Knotted pheasant-tail fibers)
  • Head/collar Natural case (Deer hair, spun)

How to tie it

  1. Mount the hook and start thread at the bend, then tie in a short red deer-hair tail tuft.
  2. Bind a yellow foam strip along the shank with a small stub at the bend and segment it with a couple of open wraps.
  3. Palmer a brown hackle over the foam body, then trim the hackle short top and bottom.
  4. Tie a lacquered mottled turkey wing flat over the body, tips reaching just past the bend.
  5. Add a knotted pheasant-tail leg along each side, angled down and back.
  6. Spin a clump of natural deer hair at the front for the collar and head.
  7. Whip finish at the eye, snip, then trim the deer-hair head to a blunt hopper shape leaving a swept-back collar.

Tying videos

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