Bodkin / Patterns

Masshopper

Dry Fly · Trout · Intermediate · 2 versions

Reference Recipe

  • Hook 2XL dry-fly / hopper hook, 8-12
  • Thread Tan 140 denier

Materials

  • 2mm foam (abdomen) Tan fly tying foam (2 strips)
  • 2mm foam (underbody accent) Yellow mm foam (1 strip)
  • Deer hair (wing) Natural deer hair (1 small clump)
  • Round rubber legs Tan or brown-barred rubber legs (2 pairs)
  • 2mm foam (sighter tab) Fluorescent pink or orange mm foam (1 small tab)

How to tie it

  1. Start thread mid-shank and lay a base back to the bend.
  2. Taper one end of a tan 2mm foam strip to a point, glue a matching strip beneath it, and press so the two sheets bond into one solid tapered body. This fused foam is what makes the fly indestructible, with no thread to unravel.
  3. Bind the foam body down at the bend and again at mid-shank, leaving the tapered tail extending one shank length past the bend.
  4. Stack a clump of natural deer hair and tie it in as a down-wing reaching the end of the abdomen; let the butts flare up.
  5. Fold the remaining forward foam back over the butts to form a bullet head and thorax, binding it at the 75% mark.
  6. Figure-8 a pair of round-rubber legs on each side.
  7. Add a small bright foam tab on top as a sighter, whip finish under the head, and cement.

Other versions

1 more in the app: Tan.

Tying videos

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