Hippie Stomper 12/26/2019 Photo Album
Visit my 01/13/2018 post for the story of my introduction to the hippie stomper, and check out 11/18/2018 for a materials table and an update on the effectiveness of the hippie stomper. Without a doubt the hippie stomper has become an essential fly within my array of fly fishing offerings, and as such I visited my vice to replenish my depleted supply.
Nice Side View
Andrew Grillos is the designer of the hippie stomper, and I had the unique opportunity to join him at Trouts Fly Fishing in Denver for a fly tying session on March 16, 2019. I was already a huge fan of the pool toy hopper, another of Andrew’s creations, and his user friendly was on my radar as a new green drake imitation. I thoroughly enjoyed my day with Andrew, and I discovered that he is from Colorado, and he has a very diverse fly fishing background. His resume includes some streamers and nymphs, but his signature works are centered on foam.
Fish Attractors
The hippie stomper exceeded my expectations during extensive field tests in 2019. I find it especially effective in small streams as the lone fly or lead fly in a dry/dropper. The relatively large size, white wing, and foam make it highly visible and buoyant, and these qualities pay off in small narrow high gradient streams with significant amounts of bushes, glare, shadows and white water turbulence. Although high elevation creeks showcase the hippie stomper, one should not overlook opportunities in larger rivers. A trip to the Arkansas River on 07/30/2019 confirmed that the hippie stomper could produce trout on a larger body of water.
A Batch of Eleven and Materials
My experiences with the hippie stomper during 2019 reinforced the effectiveness of the version with a peacock dubbed body. When I counted my supply of stompers, I learned that I possessed fourteen peacock, five silver, and eight red. I judged the quantity of silver and red to be adequate for another season, but I manned my vice to crank out eleven new peacock versions. I stashed six in my fly boxes to raise the total to twenty, and I gifted five to my son Dan, so he can join the hippie stomper revolution.
Happy New Years, Dave! Thank you again for this wonderful resource. A half dozen hippie stompers made their way into my fly box last summer care of this blog and certainly earned their placement by trips end. Among all the fish it landed, I can still clearly remember my largest Colorado Cutt (~14”) of this summer’s trip rising to take a hippie stomper on a tiny IPWA stream. I feel like I’ve learned as much following your blog as from any book on fly fishing the region.
Chris – It is very gratifying to read your comment. I started out with my blog simply as a place to easily combine my fishing logs with photos. If it can be a helpful resource to others, that makes it even better. For Christmas my son upgraded the analytics tab. He combined his extensive knowledge of spreadsheets with technical expertise on the blog, to create amazing charts. Also he made the link dynamic so that when I add stats from a new trip, it will automatically update the fish count numbers. I’m blown away by his capabilities. I wish you the best for you 2020 fishing adventures. Dave
Certainly is my most used fly over the past handful of years. I even use it all winter long as an indicator because of my aversion to using bobbers.
Certainly among my top three top flies for dry/dropper. I usually try a hopper first, since it is larger and holds a pair of nymphs better. But when fish refuse hopper, I generally downsize to a hippy stomper.