Henry’s Fork Hopper

Henry’s Fork Hopper

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Tying Instructions

1. Lay a base of thread about one eyelength behind the eye to the bend of the hook. Clip a stack of Elk Hair that is about the width of a pencil and even the tips. Place the tips over the bend of the hook so that the tips do not extend beyond the 3/4 position on the shank. Secure with thread wraps and bring the thread back to the bend of the hook.

2. Bring the hair over itself just past the bend of the hook. Secure with 3-4 wraps of thread. The extended body should only extend about 1/4 of the overall hook length.

3. Pull the hairs back and wrap the thread forward around the shank about two eyewidths. With your right hand, bring the flared hairs together over the shank and wrap 3-4 times creating a body segment. Repeat this step until 3 segments are made. Do not go past the 3/4 position on the shank. Trim the remaining butt hairs and secure with thread wraps.

4. Clip a segment of dyed yellow Elk Hair and even the tips in a stacker. Attach the clump as an underwing at the 3/4 position with the tips just extending past the extended body. Put a couple of soft wraps behind the tight ones to lessen the flaring of the tips. Trim the butts and secure with thread wraps.

5. Prepare a hen feather by lacquering the the fibers. Place the feather on top of the underwing so that the tips of the feather are even with the hairs. Do not remove the basal fibrules of the feather since you want them to wrap around the overwing at the tie down position.. Apply 4-5 tight wraps and trim off the butt section of the feather. Secure with additional wraps.

6. Clip a segment of Natural Elk Hairs for a collar. Even the tips in a stacker and trim the butts so the length is the same as the body length. Secure the butts behind the eye with two light wraps and tighten, The tightening will spin the hairs around the shank and you can then seucre the butts with 5-6 tight wraps behind the eye.

7. Bring the Flared Hair tips over the shank so that they sweep back evenly behind the eye. Secure with 5-6 tight wraps forms a bullett head. The tips whould be less than the body length.

8.Clip some rubber leg material that is about twice the shank length. Knot each of them to create a knee. Position the legs along each side of the hopper with the legs bending in towards the body. Secure with thread wraps over the same wraps you made when making the bullett head. Whip Finish and add some head cement to the collar wraps. Trim the collar hairs along the bottom half of the hopper so that the hopper lays lower within the surface film.

Materials to Order Material, click the link
Hook	TMC 5212 #8-12
Thread	Danville Yellow 6/0
Body	Bleached Elk Hair
Overwing	Prince Nymph Brown Henback
Underwing	Yellow Elk
Legs	Chartreuse Rubberlegs
Head	Natural Brown Elk Hair

Mike Lawson

Henry’s Fork Hopper

The Henry’s Hopper designed by Mike Lawson in the mid-1970’s remains a popular pattern. It utilizes Elk Hair for most of it’s parts and therefore is very buoyant. Mike Lawson fishes the Henry’s Fork, particularly the Harriman Ranch. He noted that the hoppers present had a cream to white body, not a yellow one, and the hopper patterns at the time seemed to be primarily yellow.

Pontoon Body

The pattern he desired needed stability on the flat waters of the Henry’s Fork and Mike was inspired by the description of the Pontoon Hopper in Vince Marinaro’s book, “A Modern Dry-fly Code”. He designed the pattern with a body of elk rump hair and a short extended body that acted as a “pontoon”. It had an underwing of yellow deer hair and an overwing of Pheasant rump feathers. The head was a bullethead using natural gray elk hair. There were no legs. The bullethead, similar to the Madam X, eliminates having to spin and clip the hair. Later, legs were added for more action.

Al & Gretchen Beatty created a foam body variation of the pattern worth noting. They also substituted Squirrel Hair for the wing which, with the foam body, makes a more durable and floatable hopper.

Al’s Variation

Hook	TMC 5263 #6-14
Thread	Danville Yellow 6/0
Body	3mm Yellow Closed-cell Foam
Legs	Chartreuse Rubberlegs
Wing	Gray Squirrel Tail
Head	Natural Medium Deer Hair