Daddys & Hoppers

[Novice]

Hi all I bought a selection of flies and a lot of them look to me like daddys but I was told most are hoppers. What is the difference and do they fis different?

Cheers.

Steve.

[doonicus]

Hi Novice,

The hopper is generally dressed from a size 10 down to 14's or so. The legs have usually only one knot on them, and they do not usually have a wing. The daddy is dressed on long shank hooks, or with extended bodies on normal 10's and 12's, usually have wings, and the legs are generally double knotted. The usual colours for hoppers are black, claret, red, olives etc.
The daddy bodies work best in colours from buff to grey, although I have seen them dressed in most other colours, these are surely not a true daddy tying, rather a *******isation of the daddy. Hoppers can give you great sport throughout the season, but when the daddy is on the water, watch out for fireworks, generally around August to the end of September, depending where you live.
So for a rough guide, the hopper doesn't have a wing, is usually dressed on shorter hooks than the daddy, and has only one knot in each leg as opposed to the daddy, which has two knots per leg.

Foam bodied daddies are used in many colours and can be very successful as well.

A good wet fly imitation of the daddy, which can work well is as follows:

Sprite nymph hook size 10

Body. An equal mix of hare and rabbit fur.

Rib Fine gold wire.

Hackle Pheasant tippet .

I am not sure, but I believe this was based on the Stan Headley dressing, again a fly that may have been altered from the original, however, it does work really well at times.

Sam

[marks]

Novice, doonicus has given the detail, to see them take a look in the fulling mill on line catalogue, page 49 for daddies and page 52 for hoppers. Gives a good idea. Cheers, Mark

[Novice]

Thanks Doonicus and Mark.

How do you fish them?

Cheers.

[doonicus]

Hi Novice,
I often use just a two fly cast, with black hopper on the dropper, and a claret one on the tail. Cast in front of rising rainbows, or simply cast and wait. If you do not get an offer in say 20 seconds, re-cast in a sort of fan shape, if you see what I mean. If fishing from a boat, cast about 10 to 12 yards, but have some line at your feet, ready for you to cast further out to a rising trout. Takes can be gentle, but most are quite ferocious, so make sure that knots, and leader is in really good nick, otherwise much swearing will ensue due to a lost fish and a lost leader and flies. You can also twitch the flies to get a response, which can often help as well. I watched a mate pulling two hoppers like a good 'un and producing a lot of offers, with a fish or two as a result.

Much the same with daddies' have a natural on the tail, and a fluo orange foam one on the bob. Again, make sure that the leader etc is in A1 condition. You can of course mix them up, a hopper and a daddy together, use a three fly cast and have a buzzer on the mid dropper, whatever takes your fancy.

Strangely enough, I have had quite a few double takes with hoppers, one trout takes it on the surface, another takes the other hopper whilst it is being dragged subsurface by the first trout.

Get yourself some grey dusters in size 14's, I find this little old fly can be a real winner.

Sam

[troutheaven]

Originally Posted by doonicus

Hi Novice,

The hopper is generally dressed from a size 10 down to 14's or so. The legs have usually only one knot on them, and they do not usually have a wing. The daddy is dressed on long shank hooks, or with extended bodies on normal 10's and 12's, usually have wings, and the legs are generally double knotted. The usual colours for hoppers are black, claret, red, olives etc.
The daddy bodies work best in colours from buff to grey, although I have seen them dressed in most other colours, these are surely not a true daddy tying, rather a *******isation of the daddy. Hoppers can give you great sport throughout the season, but when the daddy is on the water, watch out for fireworks, generally around August to the end of September, depending where you live.
So for a rough guide, the hopper doesn't have a wing, is usually dressed on shorter hooks than the daddy, and has only one knot in each leg as opposed to the daddy, which has two knots per leg.

Foam bodied daddies are used in many colours and can be very successful as well.

A good wet fly imitation of the daddy, which can work well is as follows:

Sprite nymph hook size 10

Body. An equal mix of hare and rabbit fur.

Rib Fine gold wire.

Hackle Pheasant tippet .

I am not sure, but I believe this was based on the Stan Headley dressing, again a fly that may have been altered from the original, however, it does work really well at times.

Sam

Sounds like a variant on my Wet Daddy pattern, which goes like this:
Body - natural raffia
Body Hackle - ginger cock
Rib - fine oval gold
Head Hackle - GP tippet feather, wound.

[arkle]

A variant of Stan's I find an absolute killer is the same pattern without the palmered body hackle and an optional goldhead. Don't think of using anything less than a 6lbs point with it, as they can hit it really hard (and often).

[doonicus]

Thanks Stan, and arkle for the dressings, will be adding both patterns to my Daddy box.

Sam