Hoppertunity time happens in August and September every year in the Driftless Area.
It’s when the grasshoppers become active along the stream banks, and fall/get blown into the stream and end up in the mouths of waiting trout.
The stage is set with warm, sunny, and windy days. Once the dew dries from the grass and hopper’s wings around 10:30 AM, and the wind picks up large bugs get blown into the water. This brings big trout out in search of large pieces of protein. The action generally lasts from 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM making for good for good mid-day fishing. This is a good time for beginning anglers because you’re fishing with big flies that you need to land on the water with a hard splat to get the fish’s attention. It’s also how grasshoppers land in the water naturally so you’re mimicking the naturals. The big flies are also easy to see on the water and generate aggressive strikes from trout.
You can use a hopper to combine surface fishing with subsurface fishing by tying 2 feet of 5X fluorocarbon tippet to the hopper’s hook bend and tying a small beadhead nymph such as a Frenchie or Copper John to the end of the tippet. This is a great way to fish the small deep pockets at the base of riffles fishing surface and subsurface at once, and the hopper serves as an edible strike indicator. That fish that tries to eat your strike indicator while nymph fishing you’ll now hook instead of getting annoyed by it.
Get out on the stream soon to take advantage of the waning days of summer and the beginning of fall with some fantastic surface action and “banker’s hours” fishing. If you want to learn more about hopper and hopper/dropper fishing first hand, schedule your next guide trip directly on our website.