Claret Hopper

Claret Hopper

Materials:

1. Hook: Medium weight wet fly – size #10 to #12
2. Thread: 8/0 black uni-thread or equivalent
3. Rib: Medium width pearl tinsel
4. Body: Claret seal’s fur
5. Legs: Knotted strands of cock pheasant tail
6. Hackle: Brown cock hackle

Instructions

1. Tie in the thread and run it down the hook shank, with touching turns, to the hook bend.
2. Take 3 ins of pearl Mylar and tie it in to use as a rib.
3. Dub a length of thread with claret coloured seal’s fur and wind it in to form a body. Leave room for the legs and hackle.
4. Tie in three sets of knotted pheasant tail fibres on each side of the hook – I prefer to have them trailing down.
5. Tie in the hackle feather and put on a lot of turns to make the fly buoyant.

Background information

Designed by Bristol Waters, the Hopper is one of the all-time great stillwater, which works well during a hatch of large midge, which it is used to imitate. It can be fished in a team of three with a buzzer suspended between two “ginked up” hoppers and seems to work well when there is a good wave on reservoirs. It can be used throughout the season but is mainly used in May and June or September through to October when the weather remains settled. A black hopper on a sunken line is also an effective fishing method especially in small stillwaters. It can also be used as a daddy longlegs imitation.