How To: Deer Hair Parachute Hopper

This is a difficult fly to tie but with a little practice they can be tied with some ease. To tie these flies you will need a sturdy hook (sz 12 pictured), deer hair, silli legs, any type and color of dubbing material, and two hackle feathers (one small and one large). Start by tying the thread back to the curve of the hook as pictured below.

 Tie in the smaller hackle feather as pictured above right. This small hackle feather will act as the ribbing on the bottom on the fly and will provide extra buoyancy. Next tie in a thick body of dubbing. I use an orange color (pictured in an earlier post) and for this fly a gray. I've found that most smaller hoppers around here are one of these two colors.

 Wrap the hackle forward over the body and tie it down. Then tie in the silli legs as pictured above. Wait to trim the legs. This is where it can get tricky!

 Tie down some stacked deer hair. Tie it down so it sits firmly but still use as few thread wraps as possible. Make sure the legs are still positioned correctly. Tie down the large piece of hackle before wrapping a thin strip of dubbing over the deer hair. While wrapping the dubbing wrap backward a little to tie the legs back.

 Now tie the thread in a parachute around the deer hair as pictured above. Now another tricky part-pull back the fibers of the hackle in order to tie in more dubbing around the front of the parachute. Wrap the dubbing up to the eye of the hook again situating the legs using dubbing to push the legs to where you want them. Tie off and apply head cement to the knot.

This is the end result! If I could do it again I would wrap more dubbing under the parachute and especially in front of the hook eye. Regardless this fly will fish well!

???Feel free to post any questions???