The Corn-Fed E.T Hopper.

Side view

Bottom view

   This fly pattern is called the Corn-Fed E.T Hopper. The reason I call it E.T is because of the black & glossy alien like eyes, they were made with UV resin & black sharpie, it reflect a lot of lights and it's very buggy looking. A lot of different grass hoppers have similar type of glossy eyes in different colours. This was my second attempt at tying a hopper type of pattern using my own tying technique of using deer hair as an under body material. I think that the deer hair not only looks good, but will float much better together with foam. Even when the fly is completely soak, it will only sink just below the water surface. I think adding natural material to a fly pattern can give it a more neutral and realistic feel to it and should be more appealing to the fish as well. Adding legs to a top water fly pattern is really deadly and will probably fool most if not all of the smartest fish. With the silhouette of legs on the water surface and a few twitches should and will trigger a striking response, don't matter if its bass, panfish or any type of fish that pluck insects from the water surface, especially trout which consume a large amount of insects in their diet. I always try to add legs to my fly pattern as much as I could, especially to nymphs and even some dry flies too if possible, because all insects have legs, well except for worms, maggots, beetle grubs and similar type of patterns. The materials I used for this fly pattern will be listed below and hope it will help any fly tier who wants to have a go at this fly pattern. This Bloody Prince hopper pattern was tied in a similar way, but different colour materials were used.!

The Bloody Prince Hopper.

Material List.

• Hook- Dry Size 6 to 10  Mustad #94831
• Under Body- Deer Hair
• Body- 2 mm Regular Fly Foam
• Legs- Knotted Pheasant Tail Fibres
• Thorax- Antron or Ice Dub & Grizzly Hackle
• Wing- Deer Hair
• Eyes- UV Resin & Black Permanent Marker                                                                                        
• Head- 2 mm Regular Fly Foam                            
• Thread- 8/0 or 6/0 Match Pattern Colour