Inspired by reports of good hopper fishing in the driftless I decided to put off mowing the lawn in favor of chasing trout. Skies were cloudy and temps hovered in the low 80's when I arrived on stream around 515pm. I like to have a little wind when I'm chucking hoppers but as I was rigging up my homespun Whitewater Valley 9' 6 weight I noticed only a very slight breeze. I tied on a deer hair and foam hopper and headed down to the river.
The stream was a little stained but I hoped not too stained for the fish to see and attack the hopper. I immediately missed a few half-hearted hits before catching this little fella.
The sun was going down fast but they were still looking up for the hopper. After a few more missed strikes I snapped off on what appeared to be a decent fish. Disappointed, I tied on another and moved upstream.
This guy came from a run where I've lost a few nice fish to an undercut. He sucked the fly from only a few inches off the bank. They key to garnering strikes was landing the fly right up against land.
This sparsely speckled chunker was the last decent fish to hit the hopper. As the sun set I tied on a size 18 CDC pheasant tail emerger and landed two more smaller trout. It was nice to get out this evening but hopefully I can find a hot and breezy day this weekend to chase trout with the hopper.
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