Morrish Hopper

Unreal Hopper Profile

In my opinion, the bottom profile of a hopper pattern trumps all other attributes...  We'll start with that.  Ken Morrish is well known for lots of very effective flies, so it's no surprise that this is one of his  creations.  Back when it first came out, people would ask all the time how to cut the body correctly, and the only real answer was either to cut them very carefully with scissors or to use razor blades.  The reason I started to play with this one is that River Road Creations created a specific cutter set to considerably speed up the tying process.  Once you get the bodies punched out and trimmed, It's really a pretty simple fly to tie - with one caveat...  The legs.  The original pattern uses round rubber legs with knots, which isn't too bad until you decide to tie them in.  Again, the most important part of a hopper is the bottom profile, so it's critical to get the legs tied in at the correct angles.  I started out using separate centipede legs like the original uses, but it was really hard to get the angles on the back legs to sit correctly, in fact, we scrapped the first video we did because the legs didn't look right.  I went back to the drawing board and played with different knotting techniques until I found something that worked and was easily repeatable.  You will see the slight modification on the back legs from the original as you watch the video.  I also played with body trimming techniques until I found a good way to get a more angled back body angle, you will see that in the video as well.  I also eliminated the notch in the back of the fly and at the head... Those were more about just saving time as I tied  the fly, but feel free to notch away in your bugs.  I will add this too - It's critical to have very sharp, smooth bladed scissors.  The TMC deer hair scissors were my favorites, but the TMC Tungsten Razor scissors, and Dr. Slick Tungsten scissors worked as well. Foam selection turned out to be more critical than I thought as well - plain 6mm sheets were a bit more spongy to tie with than three sheets of glued foam, so we show how to glue sheets together.  The glue between the sheets  actually "stiffens" the foam ever so slightly.  Overall, this hopper has been a LOT of fun to tie, and it's been a very fun challenge to try to achieve that perfect profile every time I tie it.  The best part of this bug is that it's a super simple fly to tie once you get a few of them under your belt.


~ Cheech

Here are a few charts that I prefer to help you get proportions dialed in.

Size 12 - 

• 5mm foam total (one sheet of 3mm glued to one sheet of 2mm foam)
• Back legs, one strand of medium round rubber (for the front half of the leg) knotted to one strand of medium or small round rubber (for the back half of the leg)
• Front legs, small round rubber

Size 10 - 

• 6mm foam total (three sheets of 2mm glued together, or two sheets of 3mm foam glued together)
• Back legs, two strands of medium round rubber (for the front half of the leg) knotted to one strand of medium round rubber (for the back half of the leg)
• Front legs, medium round rubber

Size 8 - 

• 6mm foam total (three sheets of 2mm glued together, or two sheets of 3mm foam glued together)
• Back legs, two strands of medium round rubber (for the front half of the leg) knotted to one strand of medium round rubber (for the back half of the leg)
• Front legs, medium round rubber

Size 6 - 

• 7mm foam total (2 sheets of 2mm, and one sheet of 3mm glued together)
• Back legs, three strands of medium round rubber (for the front half of the leg) knotted to one strand of medium round rubber (for the back half of the leg)
• Front legs, medium round rubber

Finally Here are a few links that will help you create different color variations of this bug.

3M 77 spray adhesive  (I say "triple 7" several times...  It's just 77..  I'm dumb)

2mm Foam

3mm Foam

Round Rubber Legs

Speckled Centipede Legs

TMC Tungsten Razor Scissors

TMC Deer Hair Scissors - (Note, the image shows the wrong color of scissors)

Material List

Add to Cart

View in store

                          

Hook: TMC 5262 Nymph & Streamer Hook - 8
Body: UTC Ultrathread 70 Denier - Tan
Body: Fly Tying Foam - 6mm - Tan
Indicator: Fly Tying Foam - 2mm - Orange
Legs 1: Speckled Centipede Legs - Speckled Clear Tan - Medium
Legs 2 : Wapsi Round Rubber Legs - Mud Brown - Medium

Other tools from the tutorial:
     

Morrish Hopper Foam Body Cutter - Large Set
Morrish Hopper Foam Body Cutter - 8
Fly Tyer's Z-Ment
Tiemco Tungsten Carbide Razor Scissor