Doug Korn has posted lately on his blog 55 on the fly about an interesting Salmon Fly. This is a variation of his hopper pattern, which is what makes it interesting, in my opinion. Doug explains more about the Salmon Fly below. The popular hopper pattern it is based from is Korn’s Wrapped Foam Hopper, so I have posted a photo of it below.
Korn’s Split-tail Salmon Fly
This is a variation of my Korn’s Wrapped Foam Hopper that I tie for Parks Fly Shop. It makes a super Salmon fly and you can use the same pattern for Golden Stone flies as well. I just change the hook to a size 8-10 and the foam over body to a golden yellow. Out West it’s a killer fly when the Salmon flies are hatching and in the East for the small Spring Black Stone flies. I just change the color and downsize them to size 12…
Materials:
Hook: MFCo. 7026 4-6
Thread: black 6/0 Uni
Legs: MFC med. black legs
Underbody: orange craft foam wrapped
Over body: black or dark brown craft foam, hook gap wide with split-tail
Wing: deer tail hair
Indicator: orange craft foam
SBS
tie in back legs split
tie in underbody foam at eye extending out from hook
superglue thread base, wrap orange foam back to tail-legs
attach over body with 3 wraps at tail-legs, then loop thread over the top of the underbody to the eye (this way no wraps show and you can get the thread back to the eye
put superglue on the top back of the underbody and fold over body down and secure at the eye, then wrap back to form double bullet head
tie in wing of deer tail hair, glue butts, fold over foam to form bullet head and tie down
tie in legs and indicator post, keeping thread wraps to minimum.
whip finish, varnish
note: convert split-tail to egg sack variation if desired… see photo
with egg sack
Korn’s Wrapped Foam Hopper
