Hopper Season and Fun Times August 22, 2020

If you’ve ever read the story by the late Patrick McManus called ‘Grasshopper Trap’ you can’t not smile when you open your ‘hopper’ fly box for a good day of bank fishing on the Kootenai. This week we had several 90 plus degree days and hoppers are bounding in the tall grass! It’s no wonder our Chernobyl flies are working right now!

Yesterday a fun and energetic couple joined me for a full day of fishing and we dipped into the ‘hopper’ boxes and tried a variety of terrestrial patterns. We fished black bodied, purple dubbed, rubber leggy flies, then the same with red dubbing, then deer hair winged peach color foam, leggy patterns, then …

Yup, we had fun and the fish were looking up and hitting. The closer the drift to the rocks the more hits, if you can get your fly to jump from a rock into the water, even better. Of course, watch your hook tips for breakage and be ready to lose a fly or two to the grass, the noisier the landing the more the fish notice. Forget the delicate presentations, it’s HOPPER time!

About 2pm, when the sun was hot and I had removed my PFD to shed an outer long-sleeved shirt, I was standing in waist deep water with my client. He was casting mid river into a nice riffle and we had just changed patterns. I tucked my hopper box back into the bib of my waders and stupidly took a few steps backwards. (Free tip here, never go backwards while wading) My heel hit a rock a few inches taller than the rest and I was falling backwards. It’s important to note here that there was no current, just lovely, deep water. In no time I was looking up to a blue sky through a foot and a half of water. Then the hand of God reached into the water, fisted my wader bib and I was hauled up and out of the river, dripping and laughing. (The water felt great, but not the way to install confidence to your clients.)

I thanked my rescuer for the save and he got a mischievous look on his face as he admitted, “Actually, I was saving the fly box.”

My kind of guy!

Back to business: Current river flow at the Montana/Idaho line is 9142 CFS and should hold thru next week. The water temps are ranging from 60 to 63 degrees.  The week forecast is mid 80’s and wind is calm. What a great week to get on the river and fish!