Clients are sometimes surprised when I tell them we’re going to be fishing hoppers.  Many eastern fly fishermen assume fishing with grasshopper patterns is a tactic only used on western trout streams.  Yes, it is one of the most popular places to fish them, but I promise they can be very effective dry fly patterns on a variety of eastern trout streams during the summer months.  Especially when hoppers are fished on trout streams that meander through pastures.

Fly Fishing with Hopper Patterns - Photo By: Louis Cahill

I got a call from Brad Wayne yesterday to come fish with him for a few hours in the evening.  Brad’s a hell of fly fishermen, but he’s also one of the coolest guys on the planet, so I made a quick decision to take him up on the offer.  We decided on a North Georgia stream that ran through some pasture land and we tied on our hoppers.  We had decided right off the bat that there would be no nymph fishing on this trip.  We were either going to catch them on top with dry flies or not catch them at all.

Walking through the pasture downstream we kicked up several grasshoppers and I grinned with anticipation.  Along the way Brad snatched up a live grasshopper and we stowed it away for a later hopper sacrifice.  It wasn’t long before we landed our first trout on a hopper.  We had a few refusals along the way with some trout that refused to come up to the surface for our offerings, but that’s the price you pay limiting yourself to dry fly fishing only.  Forgetting about the stowed away grasshopper, I grabbed it and tossed it into the stream.  A big fish rose from the dark depths right up to the hopper and then veered off at the last second.  Interesting I thought.  I was really surprised the struggling hopper wasn’t chomped on by the trout.  A few moments later after the hopper had made its way downstream we heard a loud splash.  The sacrifice had been made :).  I immediately made a cast ahead of the splash and I hooked up with the culprit.    It was pretty sweet….

Brad and I worked our way upstream landing a few more trout and getting a couple other fish to roll on our flies.  It was starting to get late and the cold beer at the truck was calling our names.  We decided to fish one more riffle that dropped into a deep dark pool.  Brad made a cast to the top of the riffle and we watched the hopper bobbing along as it drifted through the riffle.  All of the sudden the fly disappeared and Brad set the hook.  It was a huge rainbow and our mouths dropped wide open with astonishment.  The eat was one of the most delicate takes I had ever seen on a hopper.  There was no gulp or splash from the take.  The hopper litterally just disappeared.  Brad battled the trout perfectly and beached the hen on a shallow gravel bar for us to snap some quick photos.  We released the beauty and both agreed it was a perfect way to end the day fishing.  I won’t forget that evening in North Georgia fishing hoppers for a long time.

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