Terrestrial Time: Tying the Bow-Legged Hopper

Posted on October 3, 2009, 6:18 pm, by JB, under Bugs & Such, Flies, Tying.

Yeah, it’s October and I’m still finishing up the terrestrial series. I’ve been working hard on another project lately, so I’ve slipped behind here at FF&W over the last couple of weeks. None-the-less, here is the promised hopper tying piece (an older, but still good, pattern).

As with the previous beetle post, rather than trying to re-type everything, I have scanned (and then Photoshopped) the info straight out of GB’s 1991 book, Designing Trout Flies. I hope that the tying crowd here at FF&W finds the instructions useful.

This post happens to be lengthy—from an on-screen perspective—due to the four rather large graphics involved. So, I’ll include the first two graphics here, but you’ll need to follow the “read the rest” link to get them all.

jborger_bowlegtie1

jborger_bowlegtie2

jborger_bowlegtie3

jborger_bowlegtie4

Congratulations! You’ve managed to reach the end of 400KB+ of tying illustrations. Happy hopper-tunities…

One Comment

  1. JB says:
    October 4, 2009 at 7:24 pm

    Just realized that Step 1 may be an issue, since it refers to a fly not shown here. Basically the instruction refers to a deer-hair underbody, over-wrapped with thread (in an open spiral). Leave the deer-hair tips sticking out the back to provide a “tail.” Hope that clarifies things a bit (and the drawings show what is happening, as well).

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