Grasshopper Time — Shane Broadby

GRASSHOPPER TIME

The late Summer and early Autumn months are grasshopper time, most of the Australian written trout lore concentrates on fishing Grasshopper flies to river, stream and creek trout but Grasshoppers also feature in still water trout diet as well, a good grasshopper pattern is always a good fly to use on any water in the February to April months. There are a truck load of Grasshopper patterns out there. The Americans have always loved tying and fishing Grasshopper flies, but , Grasshopper flies have always featured very heavily in the Australian fly fishing scene too, some of the very earliest flies designed in Australia were Grasshopper patterns.

Some of the American patterns can be very complex and life like but in my view most Australian patterns are more suggestive, when I first started fly fishing my Uncle’s favorite Grasshopper Pattern was basically a yellow bodied Mrs. Simpson with a collar Hackle to help it float! It was the right colour, had a good profile, and made a splash on the water when cast and most importantly caught fish. The Geehi Beetle although designed as a beetle pattern, works very well at Grasshopper time, it’s the right colour with its light brown or ginger hackles, has a tail of Golden Pheasant tippets, which feature in many Australian Grasshopper patterns and has a nice full profile. Early Australian Grasshopper patterns such as the Glenn Innes Hopper and the Snowy Mountains Hopper just to name a couple were mostly large hackled dries with various amounts of Golden Pheasant tippets, dyed hackles and sometimes quill wings tied pent or tent style, I can’t say for certain but I don’t think it was until after the Muddler Minnow arrived on Australian shores that deer hair appeared in our home grown Grasshopper patterns.

Noels Knobby

One of the very best Grasshopper patterns is Noel Jetson’s version of the Knobby Hopper which was a popular fly on the mainland. Noel simplified and down sized the Knobby Hopper to suit Tasmania’s smaller rivers and streams and named his variation Noel’s Knobby.

The basic Noel’s Knobby Hopper has a wing of golden Pheasant Tippets a body of yellow Chenille and a clipped Deer Hair head and collar but you can add legs in the form of clipped dyed red hackle stalks or knotted Onion bag fibers, the body can also be white chenille or you can use yellow or natural seals fur, Noel Jetson tied all of these variations and more when tying his Noel’s Knobby.

A Noel’s Knobby tied with red legs made out of knotted clipped barb, dyed red hackle stalks is a great fly out in the 19 lagoons, bend the hackle stalks out like stabilizer pontoons on a boat, it’s a real trigger for the Trout.

Noels Knobby

Hook: Size 10 -14 Partridge (H1A) Thread: 6/0 – 8/0 yellow Body: Yellow or white chenille or yellow or natural seals fur or other dubbing Wing: Golden Pheasant Tippets Head and collar: Natural deer hair

Method

Lay a thread base from the eye down to the hook bend, then tie in chenille or dub on dubbing and advance forward two thirds of the hook, to the hook eye.

Firmly tie in a bunch of Golden Pheasant Tippets on top of the hook with the Tippets extending behind the hook bend for about half the hook length, snip of the butts and cover with a few even turns of thread.

Select and cut out a pencil thick bunch of natural deer hair from the skin, pull or comb out any under fur and stack in a hair stacker to even the tips.

Lay the stacked deer hair on top of the hook with your non bobbin hand making sure the tips of the deer hair are aligned with the ends of the Pheasant tippets.

Now take two loose turns of thread around the deer hair and the hook just forward of the previous tie off point, tighten the thread and then wrap another three or four wraps increasing the tension as you go and at the same time releasing the deer hair and allowing it to spin and flair around the hook, advance the thread through the buts of the deer hair, let the bobbin hang and then pack the deer hair with your fingers or some kind of packing tool, a biro casing works well.

Keep adding clumps of deer hair and follow the same method until you have reached just short of the hook eye; pack the deer hair after each clump is tied in. With these later clumps of deer hair use shorter clumps with the tip ends cut off as it with make it easier to trim the head later.

When you have reached the hook eye, form a small head and whip finish. Take the fly from the vice and with scissors slowly clip and form the head of the grasshopper, leaving the collar hackle formed by hair tips.

When you have shaped the head to your satisfaction, thin out the deer hair fibers at the under body of the fly leaving the fibers on top of the fly a touch thicker.

Geehi Beetle

Hook: Size 8 – 14 Partridge (L5A) Thread: 8/0 Drk Brown Tail: Golden Pheasant Tippets Rib: Fine copper wire Body: Peacock Herl Body Hackle: Ginger or brown cock Saddle Hackle: Ginger or Brown cock saddle

Method

Lay a thread base from the eye to the hook bend, tie in a bunch of Golden Pheasant tippets for the tail, and then tie in the copper wire rib. Now tie in one of more good quality peacock herls for the body, the number used will depend on the quality of the herl and the hook size. Advance the herl forward towards the hook eye for three quarters of the hook length, aim for a nice full body without it being too thick, if using more than one herl, wrap them singularly, you won’t need to twist the herls together for strength as the body hackle and rib will protect them, tie the herls off and snip.

Select and size a hackle for the body, you want a hackle that is a size or two smaller than the hook size, tie it in where you tied the herl off, then wind it back in open turns with hackle pliers toward the hook bend and ending at the start of the peacock herl body, leave the hackle hanging, then wind the copper wire through the hackle in open turns taking care not to trap any hackle fibres, tie the rib off at the three quarter to hook eye point.

Cut or break the wire off, your body hackle is now secured, snip the hackle point off at the hook bend. Select another hackle, this time properly sized for the hook, tie it in and form a nice full collar hackle, snip off, whip finish and varnish.

Wee Creek Hopper

Murray (Muz) Wilson was a real pioneer and always thought out of the box when designing his fly patterns, his Wee Creek hopper is no exception. The Wee Creek Hopper is usually tied with a touch of traditional deer hair for the wing and also with the relatively new materials being yellow or tan 1/8th foam, cylinders for the body and rubber legs, what really sets the Wee Creek Hopper apart though is that all the materials are tied in at a single tie in point in the middle of the hook shank, like all great flies it’s a simple fly but very effective, it’s my favorite hopper pattern for small rivers and creeks.

WMD

Another very good Grasshopper pattern is the WMD. The WMD has a large profile with a wide flaring deer hair wing, foam body and rubber legs with some flash added to the wing, the deer hair isn’t spun muddler style at the head; instead, the deer hair is tied in bullet head style. The WMD has accounted for some hefty fish out in the back lakes, it represents the large Alpine Grasshoppers well, maybe even the Mountain Kaytids that are common out there.

Go and catch a Trout ! Shane Broadby

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