Techniques

There are many habitats in which hoppers are found locally and several deserve individual attention.

Stillwaters

While not considered very important from a fly fishing perspective the Pondage can offer good hopper fishing at times. High banks that are overgrown with vegetation and drop off into deep water offer the perfect meeting point of trout and hoppers. Stalking these edges the technique is to spot fish first. During a normal year when the lake has water in it and consequently the Pondage is clear, stalking these high banks with the sun overhead will reveal fish cruising in very close to the edges. This is not dissimilar to backwater fishing in the Goulburn and suitable hunting skills come into play. More often than not the fly is dropped in the way of an approaching trout. These fish can be big and anything up to around 10 lb should be expected. One thing I think I should mention was the fly fisher I bumped into one day on one of these high banks. He had a bucket with cicadas in it and was breaking off one of  the wings of these bugs and throwing them onto the water at regular intervals. Before too long he had a line of fish between 4 and 10 lb swimming about taking them. He caught and released one on of about 8lb in my presence (before I am ostracised I am not condoning this sort of behaviour!). Point being, although these are ex-hatchery fish they will quickly work out what is going on at times and will take a large insect such as a cicada/hopper without hesitation so it can be worth a look.

Small Rivers/Creeks

These streams are perhaps the easiest to fish with the hopper as the pools are the only holding water in them. This makes targeting fish easier. Approach from behind keeping low and fish the pool with several casts depending on the size, starting from the tail. In a lot of these small local waters a good rule of thumb is one fish per pool but if you are lucky and can drag them over the drop off quickly, you can sometimes take several trout from the one pool. While hoppers work fantastically in this water I have suspicions that as food is hard to come by in these creeks that just about anything would be scoffed. In fact you will be amazed at how quickly a fly is taken in such places. These intimate rivers require 3-4 weight rods and  9-foot leaders. Fine tippets of 2 lb are used and anything heavier than this really is overkill considering the size of trout and water.  

Medium Rivers

Rivers such as the Acheron and Rubicon fit into this category. Generally characterised by slower flows, deeper water with plenty of structure and flowing through farmland, these are probably the pick of hopper waters in the area. Undercut banks with overhanging vegetation abound with plenty of  timber in the water under which the trout live. The keys to success with these rivers aside from the usual staying out of sight, is in being absolutely methodical in your fishing. Fish every likely looking lie and make repeated casts to each possible holding spot. By multiple casts I mean up to ten presentations to the one spot. While a lot of fish will take the fly on the first cast, quite often in such an environment they have to be coaxed to take from the top. This thorough fishing takes time and to adequately fish say 500 metres of the Rubicon takes me the better part of a day. Sight fishing is an option here but only for those experienced at it and even then is difficult. Perfect gear for the Rubicon would be a 4-weight rod and tippets between 4-6lb. To the dictate the terms and keep large fish from making it to the underwater jungle. Leaders should be a minimum of 10 foot long with a long heavy butt section to help with correct presentation.

Large Rivers

This of course refers to the Goulburn River. Running high and cold for the duration of the hopper season the Goulburn thankfully has fish searching the flooded edges. These high water levels combined with abundant hoppers results in some fantastic fishing opportunities. Refer to the article on fishing Goulburn Backwaters for more detailed instructions. Fish cruise in the edge waters searching out food and quite often hoppers are on the menu. From December to March most fish in backwaters can be relied upon to take a hopper pattern and the fishing is both visual and extremely exciting.

The Goulburn however is not just about backwater fishing. Runs, undercut banks, glides, all offer traditional upstream fishing opportunities. Fishing a short line say 5-10 metres is the way to go. Using the shotgun method cast upstream let it drift a few metres back towards you, then pick up and put down again this time to the side of the previous cast. Keep doing this until all the water within in range has been fished and then move upstream a couple of metres allowing access to ‘fresh’ water. This technique is extremely effective when fishing hoppers. Another useful way of fishing the Goulburn is to find likely holding spots close to the edge and cast to them laying the fly line along the bank with only the leader and fly hitting the water. Many good fish fall victim to this tactic.

Gear for fishing the Goulburn is a rod in the 4-6-weight category with my personal favourite being a 5 weight. A quality 5 weight will cast large flies, long distances if need be and still be capable of delicate presentations. Leaders are longish with 12 foot being as short as Id venture. Standard tippets for me are 4lb but in amongst some of the heavily timbered backwaters I have been known to use 6 lb on occasions.

So me Final Points

One question that keeps appearing regarding hoppers is due to the fact that anglers don’t often see them on the water in any numbers and are therefore not confident to fish them.. This is not an issue. Fish get conditioned to the fall or struggling of a hopper and it usually doesn’t take much to trigger a response. Such a large item in a stream environment where the current will quickly take it out of reach results in quick decisions needing to be made by the trout. Consequently most takes are aggressive.

Fishing a sunken hopper can sometimes work. I am not particularly fond of this method as I prefer to fish on the top but nevertheless it can be the difference between not catching and catching. Fished like an upstream nymph no indicator is required as takes are usually very noticeable with sudden line movements as the fish takes the submerged fly. For more detail on this method read Phillip Weigall's article "Grasshopper Alternatives" in issue # 2 of FlyLife Magazine.

Indicator nymphing using a hopper as the dry fly indicator is very successful too. We quite often fish a small bead head a metre or two below a Knobby Hopper and this each way bet takes a lot of trout. Quite often the large dry brings the trout to the top and if he refuses it he sometimes takes the nymph on the way down.

Another effective method is the double hopper sliding rig. Simply thread the first hopper up your leader before tying on your tippet. After attaching the tippet with a double blood knot without trimming the tags too severely, tie on another hopper on the end of the tippet. This method gives a double plop similar to a scattering of hoppers caused by passing cattle on the bank. This also gives you the opportunity to fish two sizes of hopper at the same time.

It really is hard to adequately relate in words the feeling that one has when a large brown trout snaffles your artificial hopper from the top. A combination of the aggression exhibited to the audible ‘CLOP’ as he takes, make it hard to beat hopper fishing for sheer excitement and satisfaction. Give it a try this summer and see what all the fuss is about.