Why Carry a Hopper Fly Assortment?

When hopper fishing turns on, trout are looking at one of the biggest meals they’ll find on the surface. Grasshoppers are large, land-based insects that regularly end up in rivers when they jump, fly, get blown from grassy banks, or are disturbed from nearby fields. For a trout, that can mean a substantial meal without having to chase down dozens of smaller insects.

But there isn’t one perfect hopper fly for every river or every day. Natural grasshoppers vary tremendously in size, shape, and color, and trout can respond differently depending on the water, weather, and insects they’re seeing. That’s the idea behind the Hopper Fly Assortment: instead of giving you dozens of copies of one pattern, it gives you multiple proven hopper and terrestrial profiles in sizes from #6 down to #16.

With traditional patterns, foam-bodied attractors, different silhouettes, and a variety of natural and high-visibility colors, you can change flies instead of being stuck hoping one pattern works.

When Is Hopper Fishing Best?

Hopper fishing typically becomes increasingly important through the summer and into early fall, when grasshoppers become abundant along riverbanks. This also happens during a time of year when many aquatic insect hatches can become less consistent, making terrestrials an important additional food source for trout.

Pay attention to what’s happening outside the river. Walk through the grass near the bank. Look at the size and color of the hoppers jumping around your feet. If you see lots of them, there’s a good chance some are finding their way into the water.

Windy days can be particularly interesting. Grasshoppers aren’t graceful fliers, and wind can push or knock them into the river. Fishing near grassy banks, meadows, or fields can be especially productive when this happens.

How to Fish Hopper Flies

Start Tight to the Bank

One of the best places to begin is along grassy and undercut banks. Put your hopper close to the edge and let it drift naturally downstream. Trout often hold beneath cutbanks, roots, overhanging vegetation, and other shoreline cover where terrestrials regularly enter the water.

Look for Soft Water and Feeding Lanes

Don’t limit yourself to the shoreline. Try current seams, foam lines, pockets beside faster water, the edges of riffles, and deeper slots where food naturally collects. A hopper drifting through one of these feeding lanes can get the attention of a trout even when you haven’t seen a fish rising.

Dead Drift First, Then Add a Little Movement

Start with a natural dead drift. If that isn’t producing, experiment with an occasional small twitch. A struggling grasshopper kicks and moves when it hits the water, and sometimes a subtle movement is enough to trigger a fish. The key is subtle—you generally don’t need to drag the fly across the surface.

Let the Drift Finish

Don’t automatically pick up your hopper as soon as it passes the spot you expected a fish to eat it. Trout sometimes notice a large terrestrial, follow it downstream, and then decide to eat. Giving the fly a few extra seconds can turn a missed opportunity into a strike.

Try a Hopper-Dropper Rig

Many hopper patterns are buoyant enough to serve double duty as the top fly in a hopper-dropper setup. Fish the hopper on the surface and suspend a nymph beneath it. You’re now covering two parts of the water column at once: trout looking up for a terrestrial and trout feeding below the surface.

If fish begin consistently eating the hopper, simplify the rig and fish the dry by itself. That makes it easier to place the fly extremely tight against banks, beneath vegetation, and into the pockets where trout may be waiting.

Change Size Before Giving Up on Hopper Fishing

If trout look at your fly but refuse it—or if you know hoppers are around but aren’t getting attention—change something. Try a smaller size, a larger silhouette, another color, or a different profile.

That flexibility is the biggest advantage of carrying an assortment. Hopper fishing can change from river to river and even hour to hour. With 72 flies across six patterns and multiple sizes, you can experiment until you find what the trout want instead of relying on a single hopper pattern for the entire season.