Hopper Juan
The Hopper Juan was designed by local tier Juan Ramirez. This fly was created in a desire to have a highly visible hopper pattern that covered a few criteria of Juan’s. First, he wanted a pattern that he could call his own; that didn’t copy something already out there. Second, it had to look nice. His goal was to create a pattern that was simple and attractive, as are many of his flies. Third, it had to float well and be able to hold up a nice chunk of iron and tungsten. Fourth, it had to be high-viz for clients that have trouble seeing a small duck on the water, and lastly, it had to catch fish and be durable enough to catch a bunch of them. The Hopper Juan can also be tied in orange, to reflect the bigger salmon flies or used in tan/brown for golden stones.
Fly Tying Materials List: We are happy to mail you any materials you will need to tie this fly and/or others. To order by phone call us at 720-851-4665.
Hook: 2XL such as TMC 5262 or MFC 7026 size 6-10
Thread: UTC 140 denier to match foam
Foam: 2mm foam, cut to shape with chernobyl taper cutter.
Glue: Krazy glue with brush
Underwing: MFC wing material, brown, cut with wing cutter.
Wing: Nature’s Spirit early season cow elk
Flash: Krystal flash, pearl or U.V. pearl
Legs: Med. rubber legs, color to match body
High-Vis: MFC Gator Hair
I recently found one of Juans bugs on a blogg, tungsten Hot Shot Nymph, I wrote down the recipe, but if you could resend that to me along with a picture of this bug , I would greatly apppreciate that.
Hi Wayne. I’m not sure of this one, but if it came from the vice of Juan Ramirez it is probably a pretty sweet bug. Check out his blog (google “hopper Juan”) and you can get in touch with one directly through there if he doesn’t already have a recipe up. If that doesn’t work let me know and I’ll see about getting it up.
-Theo