Dry FliesCharlie Boy Hopper
The Charlie Boy Hopper is a popular terrestrial dry fly pattern designed to imitate a grasshopper. With its foam body, it floats well and is highly visible, making it a great choice for summer and early fall fishing when hoppers are abundant on the water's surface.
Summer, Fall
Intermediate
Trout
Apr 2025
Overview
The Charlie Boy Hopper is a high-floating terrestrial pattern tied primarily with foam for durability and buoyancy. It features a foam body folded over a dubbed underbody, rubber legs for motion, and a visible wing made from synthetic yarn or deer hair. This pattern is quick to tie and tough enough to handle multiple fish, making it a summer essential for hopper-dropper setups or as a solo attractor dry.
Materials
Hook: TMC 100SP-BL #8-10, or TMC 5212 or TMC 5262 #4-8
Thread: Tan 3/0 Monocord
Binder Strip: 2mm x 2mm piece of foam
Body: Tan 2mm Thin Fly Foam
Legs: Brown Medium Round Rubber Legs
Wing: Natural Deer Hair
Glue: Zap-A-Gap CA Glue
Tool: Double Edge Razor Blades
Behavior & Presentation
Natural Behavior: Winds blow these terrestrials from grassy banks into current, where they struggle and kick vigorously upon landing. Surface commotion and their large size telegraph location to opportunistic fish during peak terrestrial periods.
Where Trout Eat It: Fish patrol banks, undercut edges, and grass margins where hoppers fall from streamside vegetation.
How to Fish It: Cast near banks with natural drift, adding occasional twitches to mimic struggling terrestrials.
Best Water: Focus on undercut banks, grass edges, current seams, foam lines, and structure near vegetation.
Strike Type: Look for explosive strikes, visible rises, or surface rings as trout attack the fly.
Fishing Strategy
Rigging Suggestions: Use a standard dry fly setup with a floating line and 9-foot leader.
Seasonal Timing: The Charlie Boy Hopper is most effective in late and early when real grasshoppers are most active. Use this fly when grasshoppers are seen on or near the water's surface, or when fish are feeding on top.
Pro Tips: The closed cell foam body makes this fly highly buoyant and visible. The orange foam indicator on top adds additional visibility.
Entomology
Grasshoppers become available to fish when winds blow them from grassy banks into the water, particularly during mid-summer to fall when populations peak along stream corridors. Once in the water, they struggle and kick their legs vigorously, creating surface commotion that telegraphs their location to opportunistic trout. Fish gorge on hoppers during terrestrial season because these large, protein-dense insects provide maximum nutrition for minimum effort.
- Order
- Orthoptera
- Family
- Acrididae
- Common Name
- Grasshopper
- Organism Type
- terrestrial
- Life Stage
- adult