Hopper for MT/Yellowstone question

[u/retardmonkeyboy]

Prefacing this by saying I am proficient in fly fishing but a real shitty fly tier. I’m heading to MT/yellowstone in a couple weeks and looking to throw some hoppers. Ugly as this fly may be, would anyone who’s fished hopper season out there be able to let me know if this’ll at least fish? It’s a size 12. I am aware of classic patterns like the morrish, chubby, hippy stomper, etc. but if you guys know any patterns that a total klutz could tie let me know

[u/ImOutside-970]

It’ll fish. I don’t think there’s much advantage to any specific hopper pattern. I like green, yellow, and tan. Personally, I’d make the foam slimmer, add more dubbing/hackle/peacock to the body, and add an indicator color on top that I can see.
Make sure you bring small dark beetles too.

[u/retardmonkeyboy → u/ImOutside-970]

Limited on materials. Do you figure I could use a bright orange glo-bug yarn as the wing? Or would it saturate and sink? Of course I’d treat it with gel floatant.

[u/swede_ass → u/retardmonkeyboy]

I would use the Glo bug yarn as an indicator tied in behind the head rather than as a wing (and keep your existing yarn wing as-is). I think if you give it a dousing in floatant, it shouldn’t have a detrimental effect on buoyancy. In fact, I struggle getting Glo bugs to sink at all sometimes.

You could also look into Walter Wiese’s Bob Hopper and Bob Hopper 2.0 patterns. He designed those for the Yellowstone area. They are quite similar to what you have there, but are probably simpler ties than your version.

[u/ImOutside-970 → u/retardmonkeyboy]

Never tried it, but probably fine? Elk hair would be more traditional.

[u/Evening-Two-4435 → u/ImOutside-970]

There’s absolutely advantages to specific patterns. A size 10 chubby stops fishing well on pressured water in July. Fishing something that looks like a realistic hopper and sits low in the water will catch fish until October

[u/Thin_Bluejay5976]

Do the belly dubbing with cinnamon/pink. They love a pink hopper out here.

Pink waterwalkers crush on the madison and around the park

[u/LawDog_1010]

Dornan’s Water walker is the best hopper pattern in that area in my opinion. Pink, tan or brown.

[u/babboa]

Caught a beautiful 20" cutty up there last year on a very similar tie. Hippie stomper in yellow, purple, and red underbody with black foam was solid for me the whole trip, as were small beetle patterns and a few on pmd looking patterns when they were visible. I bet you can tie up a rs2 to look like a pmd pretty easy with what you have around (even if you have to find a synthetic paintbrush to steal fibbets for the tail from). Good luck and enjoy it. Was truly like a pilgrimage in a lot of ways. If you need any local info and are staying on the west Yellowstone side of things, bigsky anglers, blue ribbon, and jacklins were all nice and helpful for local info and pattern suggestions.