Dave's Hopper

Dave's Hopper

There is a category of dry fly fishing that operates on different principles than the careful, deliberate game of matching the hatch — a category defined not by precision and subtlety but by aggression, visibility, and the willingness of large trout to move significant distances to eat something substantial. Terrestrial fishing in general and hopper fishing in particular live in that category, and at the center of hopper fishing stands Dave's Hopper — one of the most important terrestrial patterns in the history of American fly fishing, a fly that helped define and legitimize an entire approach to summer dry fly fishing and that continues to produce fish across the American West and beyond with a consistency that more than justifies its legendary status.

Dave's Hopper was developed by Michigan fly tier and angler Dave Whitlock in the early 1970s as a refinement of Joe's Hopper — the earlier Michigan hopper pattern that had been the standard large grasshopper imitation for decades before Whitlock's improvements. Where Joe's Hopper was effective, Dave's Hopper was exceptional. Whitlock added a turkey wing quill body that more accurately replicated the grasshopper's folded wing and body structure, a deer hair head that provided improved buoyancy and a more accurate silhouette at the most visible part of the fly, knotted pheasant tail legs that introduced an anatomical realism no earlier hopper pattern had attempted, and an elk hair tail and wing configuration that improved both the fly's durability and its ability to ride correctly in the surface. The result was a hopper pattern that looked more like a real grasshopper, floated more reliably than its predecessors, and produced more fish across a wider range of conditions than anything that had come before it. Dave's Hopper did not merely improve on what existed — it established the template that every significant hopper pattern developed in the subsequent fifty years has worked from in one way or another.

Understanding Grasshopper Behavior

Fishing Dave's Hopper well begins with understanding grasshoppers — the real insects that trout encounter from midsummer through early fall in the meadows, agricultural fields, and grassy riverbanks that border the most productive western trout rivers. Grasshoppers do not intentionally enter the water. They are terrestrial insects that end up on the water through a combination of wind, accidental landing during flight, and the simple physics of a large, clumsy insect living close to moving water. When they hit the surface they struggle — legs kicking, wings beating against the water, creating significant surface disturbance in an attempt to escape. They are not subtle. They are not delicate. They are the opposite of a size 20 midge sitting quietly in the film, and the trout that eat them respond to that difference in a way that makes hopper fishing one of the most viscerally exciting forms of dry fly fishing available.

The struggle of a hopper on the surface is a trigger that Dave's Hopper replicates through both its physical design and the way it is fished. The knotted pheasant tail legs extend at angles that suggest a grasshopper's powerful hind legs pushing against the water. The deer hair head pushes water when the fly is twitched. The elk hair tail and wing configuration maintains the fly's orientation correctly in the surface even during animated presentations. Every element of Whitlock's design is oriented toward replicating not just how a grasshopper looks on the water but how it behaves — and that behavioral accuracy is what makes the fly effective even in the hands of an angler who has never seen a real grasshopper fall into a river.

The Grasshopper Season

Grasshoppers are not a year-round food source. They are a summer and early fall phenomenon, and the precise window during which Dave's Hopper is most productive maps directly onto the life cycle and behavioral patterns of the natural insect.

Grasshoppers begin appearing in significant numbers along western riverbanks from mid-July onward, as the adults that hatched from late spring and early summer nymph populations mature to full size and begin the most active phase of their annual cycle. July is the transition month — hoppers are present but not yet at peak density or activity, and fish are beginning to key on them but have not yet established the aggressive surface-feeding posture that defines peak hopper season. A Dave's Hopper in July often produces fish but requires more presentations per fish than it will a month later.

August is the peak of hopper season across most of the American West — the month when grasshopper populations are at their densest, when warm afternoons trigger maximum insect activity in the grass and along the banks, and when the combination of high temperatures, low clear water, and abundant terrestrial food puts large trout into a surface-feeding mode that lasts from mid-morning through early evening on the best days. This is the month that serious hopper anglers build their summer around, and the rivers of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Colorado during a warm August week produce some of the most spectacular large-fish dry fly fishing available anywhere in the country.

September extends the hopper season into fall on most western rivers, with peak activity typically occurring during the warmest hours of the afternoon as cooling temperatures concentrate activity into a shorter daily window. September hopper fishing on Montana's spring creeks and the meadow sections of freestone rivers produces some of the season's largest fish — brown trout that have been feeding heavily through the summer and are entering the pre-spawn period of increased aggression and caloric intake before the fall spawn begins. A large Dave's Hopper twitched along a cut bank on a warm September afternoon is one of the most effective presentations for large pre-spawn brown trout available to a dry fly angler.

Temperature and wind are the two most important daily variables within the hopper season. Warm temperatures — air temperatures in the mid-70s Fahrenheit and above — are the most reliable predictor of significant grasshopper activity along the banks. Cool, cloudy days in August suppress hopper activity dramatically compared to warm, sunny days on the same river. Wind is the mechanism that puts hoppers on the water in the largest numbers — a steady wind blowing from the grass and bank vegetation across the river surface concentrates hoppers in the surface drift and positions large trout in feeding lanes along windward banks and current edges where they can intercept the most food with the least effort. On a windy summer afternoon the fishing can shift from slow to extraordinary within minutes as the wind direction changes and begins delivering hoppers to a bank that was quiet an hour before.

Where Dave's Hopper Excels

Dave's Hopper is fundamentally a bank fishing fly — a pattern designed to be presented tight to streamside structure where grasshoppers most commonly enter the water and where the largest fish position themselves to intercept them. Understanding which specific bank features concentrate both hoppers and trout is the most important piece of tactical knowledge for fishing this pattern consistently.

Cut banks are the signature hopper fishing structure and the feature most worth seeking when approaching any stretch of western river during hopper season. Cut banks are formed where river current erodes the outer edge of a bend, creating vertical or undercut banks with grass, sage, or other vegetation at the edge. Grasshoppers living in that bank vegetation are just one clumsy jump away from the water, and the large trout that station themselves tight against the cut bank are positioned exactly where the food falls in. Casts that land Dave's Hopper within four to six inches of the vertical bank face — not a foot off the bank, not two feet off the bank, but as tight to the bank as the presentation allows — consistently outperform casts that land further from the structure, even when those casts are in water that looks equally productive.

Meadow sections of freestone rivers and the flat, grassy stretches of spring creeks are prime hopper water for the same reason — extensive, low, grass-covered banks that put hoppers at immediate risk of ending up in the water when the wind blows or the insects jump in the wrong direction. The meadow sections of the Madison River below Ennis, the famous spring creeks of Paradise Valley, the flat stretches of the Gallatin through the canyon meadows — these are the stretches that define western hopper fishing and where Dave's Hopper performs most consistently from mid-July through September.

Overhanging willows and bank vegetation that extends over the water's edge create natural hopper delivery zones where insects lose their footing on the vegetation and fall directly into the current. Presenting Dave's Hopper under and tight to overhanging vegetation — a cast that requires precision and often a curve cast or reach presentation to place the fly in the gap between the surface and the hanging vegetation — produces fish that are specifically stationed to exploit this food source.

Irrigation canals, tailrace sections below dams, and agricultural stretches of western rivers where grasshopper populations in adjacent fields are dense deserve attention during peak hopper season. These are not always the most aesthetically appealing stretches of river but they are frequently the most productive for hopper fishing simply because the adjacent grasshopper populations are the largest and the fish have learned to associate bank presentations with high-calorie food.

How to Fish Dave's Hopper

Fishing Dave's Hopper well is a fundamentally different exercise from fishing smaller, more delicate dry flies — the approach, the presentation style, and the angler's mindset all require adjustment from what most dry fly fishing demands.

The most common mistake in hopper fishing is fishing it too delicately. A real grasshopper does not land on the water like a size 18 Baetis dun — it crashes, struggles, and makes its presence known. A Dave's Hopper that lands too gently and sits quietly in the film throughout its drift is not accurately representing the natural, and fish that are specifically looking for the struggle of a hopper on the surface will often ignore a delicately presented fly that does not deliver the behavioral cues they expect.

Cast with enough force to turn the leader over completely and deliver the fly with a genuine splat on the water surface. Not a sloppy, pile cast — a delivered, intentional impact that pushes a small amount of water and creates the surface disturbance of a large insect hitting the water from flight. On many days this splat presentation outperforms a gentle delivery by a dramatic margin because it replicates the actual impact signature of a natural grasshopper landing on the surface.

The downstream presentation — casting downstream and across rather than the upstream angle that most dry fly fishing employs — is often the most practical approach for bank fishing with Dave's Hopper. Wading or walking the bank from upstream, casting at a downstream angle tight to the bank structure, allows the angler to cover cut bank after cut bank efficiently without the constant repositioning required for upstream presentations. The downstream cast lands the fly near the bank, the angler mends or feeds line to extend the drift downstream along the bank face, and the fly covers the most productive zone through its full drift before the angler lifts for the next presentation.

The twitch is the most important technique in hopper fishing and the one that converts following fish to takes more consistently than any other variable in the presentation. After the initial splat landing and the first foot or two of drift, a single sharp twitch of the rod tip — enough to pull the fly two to three inches across the surface and create a small wake before returning to a dead drift — replicates the leg-kicking struggle of a live hopper and triggers strikes from fish that have been following the fly without committing. The timing of the twitch matters — too early in the drift and the fish has not had time to locate and approach the fly, too late and the fish has already made its decision to refuse. A twitch at the two to four-foot mark of the drift, when a trailing fish has had time to position itself behind the fly, produces the most consistent results. One twitch, then return to dead drift. Repeat once more near the end of the drift if no strike has come.

The hopper-dropper rig — Dave's Hopper as the indicator fly with a nymph trailing below on a twelve to eighteen inch tippet — is one of the most productive and most widely used summer setups in western fly fishing. The Hopper provides the buoyancy needed to support a trailing nymph, covers surface-feeding fish simultaneously with the subsurface presentation, and produces its own strikes from fish looking up for terrestrials while the nymph covers fish holding at depth between surface feeding periods. A Bead Head Hare's Ear, a Bead Head Pheasant Tail, a Zebra Midge, or a Pat's Rubber Legs in sizes 8 through 14 are all effective dropper patterns beneath Dave's Hopper, and the combination regularly produces fish throughout the day on western rivers where neither a stand-alone dry fly nor a stand-alone nymph rig would cover the full range of feeding behavior being exhibited by the trout population.

Reading Water During Hopper Season

Hopper season changes how experienced anglers read water on their home rivers — the productive lies shift from the mid-stream nymph positions and feeding lanes that define spring and early summer fishing toward the bank-oriented ambush positions that define the way large trout feed on terrestrials through the summer.

The productive water during hopper season is the water immediately adjacent to the bank — typically the first six to twelve inches of water along the bank face rather than the mid-current seams and riffles that produce the majority of fish during hatch-dependent fishing. This bank-oriented feeding is a response to the food source's delivery mechanism — hoppers come from the bank, and fish that understand this position themselves to intercept the food as efficiently as possible.

This means that the angler who is fishing mid-river positions during prime hopper time is fishing the wrong water regardless of how productive those positions are during other parts of the season. Move to the bank. Fish tight to the structure. Cover every piece of bank vegetation, every overhanging willow, every cut bank face with presentations that put the fly where the food actually enters the water — and accept that some of those presentations will be difficult, technically demanding casts that require developed skills rather than the straightforward upstream presentations that cover mid-current lies comfortably.

Deep, slow pools adjacent to cut banks are the highest percentage structures during peak hopper season because they concentrate both the food delivery zone — the bank — and the ideal holding water for large fish in a single location. A large brown trout holding in the depth of a pool beneath an undercut bank has the perfect setup for hopper feeding — protected, cool holding water directly beneath a food source that delivers large, calorie-dense prey items throughout the warmest part of the day. These fish do not need to move to find food. They simply need to rise a few feet when the food arrives above them.

Dave's Hopper on a Drift Boat

The drift boat is the most efficient platform for hopper fishing with Dave's Hopper, and the combination of a skilled oarsman and a focused caster working the banks systematically from a drifting boat is one of the most effective large fish hunting setups available in western fly fishing.

From a drift boat the angler casts toward the bank as the boat passes, lands the fly tight to the structure, and strips or mends to extend the drift for as long as the boat's movement allows before lifting for the next cast. The rhythm is continuous — cast, drift, lift, cast — covering bank after bank and piece of structure after piece of structure with a systematic efficiency that wade fishing cannot replicate on large rivers like the Madison, the Gallatin below the canyon, and the Missouri below Holter Dam.

The key from a boat is casting angle. The angler should be casting almost perpendicular to the bank — at a ninety-degree angle from the direction of drift — rather than at the acute angle that would place the fly upstream. The perpendicular cast produces the longest drift along the bank face before the boat's movement introduces drag, and that extended drift along the bank is where the largest fish are most likely to take.

Leader Configuration

Dave's Hopper is a large, air-resistant fly that requires a leader configuration that turns it over cleanly in variable winds — a genuine challenge during the August afternoons when hopper fishing is at its most productive and when the same winds that put hoppers on the water make precise presentation technically difficult.

A shorter, stiffer leader in the 7.5 to 9-foot range with a relatively heavy tippet — 3X or 4X — is the right setup for most Dave's Hopper applications. The heavier tippet provides the stiffness needed to turn over a large, bushy fly in wind and the strength needed to handle the large fish that Dave's Hopper regularly encounters. Leader-shyness is not a meaningful concern during hopper season — fish that are aggressively feeding on large terrestrials are not examining tippet diameter — and the practical advantages of a stouter tippet far outweigh any theoretical imitative disadvantage.

For the hopper-dropper setup, tie the dropper tippet directly to the hook bend of Dave's Hopper rather than through a loop, using a 12 to 18-inch section of 4X or 5X fluorocarbon to the trailing nymph. The dropper length should be calibrated to the depth of the water being fished — shorter in shallow runs, longer in deeper pools where the nymph needs to reach the level where fish are holding.

Size and Color

Dave's Hopper is most commonly and most effectively fished in sizes 6 through 12, with the appropriate size on any given day and river dictated by the size of the naturals present in the bank vegetation adjacent to the water.

Size 6 is appropriate for large rivers where the fish are accustomed to big terrestrials and where a substantial presentation is needed to draw fish from their holding positions beneath the bank. On the Madison, the Missouri, and other large western rivers during peak hopper season when fish are holding deep and need a significant visual trigger to initiate a rise, size 6 produces the most consistent results.

Size 8 is the most widely applicable size and the right starting point for any western river during hopper season without specific information about the size of the naturals present. It is large enough to produce the surface disturbance and visual presence that makes hopper fishing effective while being appropriate for the full range of western rivers where Dave's Hopper is fished.

Size 10 is the technical hopper size — appropriate for late-season conditions when fish have been seeing large hoppers all summer and a slightly smaller presentation produces better results, for pressured spring creeks where fish are more selective than their freestone counterparts, and for rivers where the natural grasshopper populations run toward the smaller end of the size range.

Size 12 is the smallest useful Dave's Hopper size and the right choice during the early hopper season when the naturals are still in the nymphal stage and not yet at full adult size, for smaller freestone streams and spring creeks where a size 8 would overwhelm the scale of the water, and for the most technically demanding presentations on the most pressured water.

Yellow and tan are the most commonly fished and most broadly effective body colors, matching the coloration of the most widely distributed North American grasshopper species. Yellow is the right choice for rivers where the dominant grasshopper species are the brighter-colored varieties common in mountain meadows and irrigated agricultural land. Tan is slightly more subtle and frequently more effective on pressured spring creek water where fish have been seeing yellow hoppers all summer and a slightly different color produces fresh interest.

Target Species

Brown trout are the defining target for Dave's Hopper across the American West and the species for which the pattern's most legendary fish stories have been written. Large brown trout — the fish that define what is possible in western dry fly fishing, the fish that spend most of the year holding in deep, protected lies and emerge to feed aggressively only during the most compelling feeding opportunities — are drawn to the surface by Dave's Hopper during hopper season in ways that no other dry fly pattern produces with the same consistency. The two-pound brown trout that ignores every midge and mayfly presentation through the entire season will slam a Dave's Hopper twitched along a cut bank on a warm August afternoon. That dynamic — the largest fish in the river responding to the most dramatic presentation — is what makes hopper season one of the most anticipated windows of the fly fishing year.

Rainbow trout throughout the American West respond to Dave's Hopper with an enthusiasm that makes them highly satisfying hopper fishing targets on the rivers where they coexist with hoppers — the spring creeks of Paradise Valley, the freestone sections of Idaho and Montana rivers, and the grasshopper-adjacent tailwaters where terrestrial food is available along productive bank structure. Their tendency toward more aggressive, immediate takes compared to the deliberate inspection of large brown trout makes rainbow hopper takes among the most explosive and visually dramatic strikes in western dry fly fishing.

Cutthroat trout in meadow stream environments — the Yellowstone River above the lake, the upper Snake, the meadow sections of countless smaller Wyoming and Montana rivers — eat Dave's Hopper with a willingness that reflects both the abundance of grasshoppers in the high-elevation meadows they inhabit and the characteristically aggressive surface-feeding behavior that defines cutthroat dry fly fishing. A Dave's Hopper on a cutthroat meadow stream in August is one of the most straightforward and most enjoyable dry fly experiences available anywhere in the American West.

Brook trout in larger streams and rivers with significant bank grasshopper populations take Dave's Hopper with the enthusiastic, committed take that characterizes brook trout surface feeding — a take that often produces the most explosive and most satisfying rises of any session on water where brook trout are present.

The Fly That Changed Hopper Fishing

Dave Whitlock's contribution to fly fishing is broader than any single pattern — he is among the most significant tiers, teachers, and innovators the sport has produced in the twentieth century. But Dave's Hopper stands as his most widely fished and most enduring contribution to the working vocabulary of patterns that serious anglers carry and trust. It changed hopper fishing by raising the standard of what a hopper imitation could accomplish — in terms of accuracy, durability, and effectiveness — and it did so through disciplined attention to the specific behavioral and visual cues that make grasshoppers such compelling food items for large trout.

Fifty years after its development the fly continues to produce. On the Madison, the Gallatin, the spring creeks of Paradise Valley, the freestone rivers of the Colorado Rockies, and every other piece of western water where grasshoppers fall into the river on warm summer afternoons, Dave's Hopper is still the fly that guides reach for first, the fly that serious anglers carry in multiple sizes and colors throughout the summer, and the fly that defines the most exciting and most accessible large fish dry fly fishing available to the modern western angler.

Tie it on tight to the bank. Twitch it once. And hold on.

Pair it with: A size 10 or 12 Bead Head Hare's Ear, Pat's Rubber Legs, or Bead Head Pheasant Tail on a 14 to 18-inch dropper below Dave's Hopper for the standard hopper-dropper rig that covers both surface and subsurface feeding fish simultaneously throughout the summer season. On pressured spring creeks where fish have been seeing Dave's Hopper all summer, try switching to a size 10 or 12 Tan or Yellow Elk Hair Caddis or a smaller hopper pattern in late season when fish have become selective to the dominant presentation.

Best rivers: Madison River, Gallatin River, Missouri River, Yellowstone River, Henry's Fork, Snake River, Green River, Provo River, upper Colorado River, Arkansas River, Frying Pan River, Nelson's Spring Creek, Armstrong Spring Creek, DePuy's Spring Creek, Bighorn River, North Platte River