Overview
This Charlie Craven pattern from Charlie's Fly Box showcases Kyle Bakko's innovative approach to hopper design for practical fishing applications. Kyle developed this pattern while guiding float trips where clients needed a buoyant indicator fly that could support a heavy nymph dropper. The "Phat Azz" name refers to the substantial three-layer laminated foam body that provides exceptional flotation. The use of specialized foam cutting tools like the River Road Creations Beavertail Foam Cutter helps achieve the consistent body shape that makes this pattern so effective.
Related patterns
Behavior & presentation
- Natural Behavior
- Large grasshoppers land heavily on water surfaces with audible splats, immediately struggling with powerful leg kicks that propel them in erratic patterns. Their size makes them visible from great distances both above and below the surface, and trout will abandon feeding stations to intercept these high-calorie prey items, often racing upstream toward the splash sound and creating explosive strikes that fully breach the surface in pursuit of escaping hoppers attempting to jump back to shore.
- Where Trout Eat It
- Float-trip trout rise opportunistically along grassy banks, taking either hopper or nymph dropper. The three-layer foam keeps heavy rigs floating while creating substantial surface silhouette.
- How to Fish It
- Fish as indicator in hopper-dropper rigs. The foam platform suspends size 16-20 beadhead droppers 18-30 inches below with minimal false casting.
- Best Water
- Focus on float-trip bank lines with grassy margins and moderate runs (2-5 feet).
- Strike Type
- Expect explosive surface takes as large trout attack the bulky hopper with full commitment. The heavy splat of the pattern landing often triggers immediate strikes from nearby fish.
Fishing strategy
- Rigging Suggestions
- Fish on a 9-foot leader tapering to 3X-4X tippet. The exceptional buoyancy allows this pattern to support heavy nymph droppers (size 16-20 beadheads) without compromising the drift.
- Seasonal Timing
- and early fall when grasshopper activity peaks. Prime time is mid-morning through late afternoon when hoppers are most active along grassy riverbanks.
- Pro Tips
- The substantial profile makes this pattern easy to track even in choppy water.
Where to fish it
Rivers anglers pair with this fly, with local shops that stock it.
River details and fly shops from River & Run, our sister site.
Entomology
Large grasshoppers land heavily on water surfaces with audible splats, immediately struggling with powerful leg kicks that propel them in erratic patterns. Their size makes them visible from great distances both above and below the surface, and trout will abandon feeding stations to intercept these high-calorie prey items, often racing upstream toward the splash sound and creating explosive strikes that fully breach the surface in pursuit of escaping hoppers attempting to jump back to shore.
- Order
- Orthoptera
- Family
- Acrididae
- Common name
- Grasshopper
- Organism
- terrestrial
- Life stage
- adult
Pattern details
- Moving Water
- Rocky Mountain
- dead-drift
- hopper-season
- modern
- guide-fly
