Bodkin / Patterns

Scuba Hopper

Terrestrial · Trout · Smallmouth Bass · Panfish · Advanced · 3 versions

Note: Contested against a published dressing: MISMATCH. Cheech's Scuba Hopper is a sunk hopper with NO foam, NO deer hair and NO hackle: dubbed tan body with a Flex-Floss rib, speckled centipede legs front and back, a ringneck pheasant tail wing and a tan craft fur head, over a 3.8mm gold tungsten bead and .02 lead. Source: Fly Fish Food (Cheech) — "Scuba Hopper" nymph tutorial — https://www.flyfishfood.com/blogs/nymph-tutorials/scuba-hopper

Reference Recipe

  • Hook 2XL nymph/hopper, 8-12
  • Thread tan 6/0 (140 denier)

Materials

  • Tungsten bead Black bead (1 (to sink))
  • Lead-free wire - (6-8 wraps)
  • Foam strip Tan fly tying foam (1 (hook-gap wide))
  • Dubbing Tan/gold dubbing (small amount)
  • Barred rubber legs Tan barred rubber legs medium (2 pairs)
  • Deer hair Natural deer hair (1 small clump (wing))
  • Brown hackle Brown hackle (1 feather)

How to tie it

  1. Slide a tungsten bead to the eye and add 6-8 wraps of lead-free wire behind it, then run a thread base to the bend. The whole point of a scuba hopper is that it fishes below the surface.
  2. Dub a tan abdomen forward to the 55% mark, or fold a strip of foam into a segmented underbody there.
  3. Knot a pair of barred rubber legs to each side at the 55% mark so they trail past the bend.
  4. Tie in a small clump of deer hair as a down-wing over the body, tips reaching just past the bend.
  5. Fold a tan foam strip forward over the thorax and bind it behind the bead to form a flat head and buoyant back.
  6. Take 2-3 turns of brown hackle through the thorax for legs and tie off.
  7. Whip finish behind the bead and cement.

Other versions

2 more in the app: Fly Fish Food Tie, variant 1, Fly Fish Food Tie, variant 2.

Tying videos

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