Hopper season is here. That means that almost every person that comes through the shop is asking about them. Locals, tourists, it really doesn’t matter. One of the most common phrases we’ve heard lately is “you fish a hopper/dropper out here?”
Hopper/Dropper is one of those terms that has been written about so much in so many magazines, books, blogs, and so on that almost everyone has heard it. Even if they don’t really know what it means, they’re going to walk into a fly shop and say it. You can always tell someone who is new to the sport by the misuse of popular fly fishing terms. Don’t get me wrong, more power to them for getting out there, but it is still kind of funny. At this point in the season we all have to laugh at what we can or we’d go mad.
A customer walked in last week, obviously in a very big hurry, butted into a conversation I was having with another customer and simply said “Hops”. Didn’t ask, just said. Then he just stood there and looked at me. “Hops!” he repeated in a agitated manner. I wasn’t quite sure what to say and it took me a minute to even understand what he was asking. I proceeded to show him what we’ve got as far as hoppers go. After a couple minutes he started asking about “drops”. He used the term “hop/drop” so much I just about burst out laughing.
We have had so many people asking about hoppers that coworker Elizabeth even wrote a “Hip Hop Hop Drop” rap about it. It was actually pretty good, and brought a much needed laugh to the shop in this time of late summer burnout. I’ll see if I can get the lyrics from her…
Hopper season has a big reputation. When it is on, it’s on and it earns every last one of those magazine mentions. Everyone loves fishing big foam dry flies. But that doesn’t mean we still can’t laugh a little about it.
