When Is Hopper Season? How to Fish Grasshopper Patterns From August to First Frost

I remember hot summer days when I was a kid catching grasshoppers and getting black tobacco spit from the grasshopper all over my hands, what the heck was that about? Then I would run my hook through them, crawl over to the side of a stream on my hands and knees and dangle it in and listen for the gulp of a fish. This was truly exciting times to a 12 year old kid. Hopper season runs from roughly late July through the first hard frosts of fall, peaking in August and early September across the Rocky Mountain West. Unlike most trout fishing, it rewards the conditions anglers usually complain about: hot afternoons, bright sun, and wind. Grasshoppers get active when the day heats up, and wind is what puts them in the water — which means the middle of a blustery August day, the exact window most fly anglers write off, is prime time for the biggest dry-fly eats of the year.

Why grasshoppers end up in the river

Grasshoppers aren't aquatic. Nothing about their life cycle involves water, and a hopper in the current is a hopper that made a mistake. That's the whole point: it's a big, meaty, struggling insect that a trout doesn't have to sip delicately, and it isn't going anywhere. Fish that spend all summer inspecting size-20 mayflies will move three feet and eat a hopper without a second thought.

The mistake usually happens for one of three reasons: wind blowing them off streamside grass, a clumsy landing on a jump, or a grazing animal or angler kicking them out of the vegetation. The first one is the reason wind is your friend in August instead of your enemy.

The conditions that turn it on

• **Heat.** Grasshoppers are cold-blooded and sluggish in the morning. They get moving as air temperatures climb, which is why hopper fishing is a late-morning-to-late-afternoon game — the opposite of the dawn-patrol rhythm most of summer demands.
• **Wind.** A steady breeze, especially blowing across a grassy bank onto the water, is the single best hopper indicator there is. Gusty afternoons that ruin your dry-fly presentation elsewhere are exactly when banks get seeded with bugs.
• **Maturity.** Early-summer hoppers are small and can't fly far. By August they're big, strong fliers — and far more likely to end up mid-river instead of pinned to the edge.
• **Grass.** No grass, no hoppers. Meadow stretches, hay fields, pasture banks, and sagebrush flats produce; a canyon of bare rock and pine does not.

One caution that overrides all of it: hopper time is the hottest part of the day, and warm water is hard on trout. If your river is pushing into the caution zone, fish hoppers in the morning or find colder water — our guide on when it's too hot to fish for trout covers the cutoffs. Check the current water temperature on the live map before you commit to a midday session.

Where to throw them

Fish the bank, then fish it closer. The classic hopper lie is within a foot of the grass — trout stack under undercut banks and overhanging vegetation in late summer specifically because that's where the food falls in.

• **The windward bank.** Wherever the wind is blowing from the grass onto the water — that's the buffet line.
• **Undercut banks and grass overhangs**, especially with a seam of current running right against them.
• **Foam lines below meadow bends**, where anything that fell in upstream collects.
• **Bank cushions on the outside of corners** — deeper water, close cover, easy access to whatever tumbles in.

Cast tight. If you're not occasionally hanging a fly in the grass, you're not close enough.

Presentation: be loud

This is the rare situation in fly fishing where delicacy is wrong. A real grasshopper hits the water like a thrown rock — trout key on that splat, and a hopper that lands softly can actually get ignored. Let the fly slap down, then leave it dead-drifted for a few seconds. If nothing happens, give it a small twitch: hoppers kick when they land in water, and that motion is often what triggers the eat.

Two more things worth knowing:

• **The eat is slow.** Trout usually rise deliberately to a hopper — a big, unhurried head-and-tail. Setting the instant you see the fish is how you pull the fly out of an open mouth. Wait until the fly is gone, then lift.
• **Go heavier than feels right.** 2X–3X tippet is normal here. You're turning over a bulky fly in wind, and the fish eating it are the ones that don't get fooled by delicacy. Light tippet loses more fish than it fools.

The hopper-dropper: summer's most useful rig

If you fish one rig from August to October, this is it. A buoyant hopper serves as both dry fly and strike indicator, with a nymph suspended 12–36 inches below it on a tippet tied to the hopper's hook bend.

• Set the dropper depth to the water you're fishing — shorter over shallow riffles, longer over deep bank cushions.
• Standard droppers: a pheasant tail, hare's ear, perdigon, or a small beadhead in sizes 14–18.
• If the hopper keeps sinking, either your dropper is too heavy or your fly needs floatant. Buoyancy is the whole job.

Plenty of days end with every fish on the dropper — that's not a failed hopper day, that's a rig doing its job.

Patterns worth carrying

You don't need a fly box full. Cover the sizes and profiles:

• **Chubby Chernobyl (8–12)** — foam, indestructible, floats a heavy dropper. The workhorse.
• **Morrish Hopper or Fat Albert (8–12)** — more realistic profiles for when fish get picky.
• **Dave's Hopper (10–14)** — the classic hair-and-deer-hair pattern; sits lower, looks more like the real thing.
• **Small foam hoppers (12–14)** — late-season and pressured-water insurance.

Early season: go bigger. Late season, after fish have seen a month of foam: go smaller and more subdued. That's usually a more reliable adjustment than switching patterns entirely.

When does it end?

The first hard frosts kill off the adult population, and hopper fishing shuts down within a week or two afterward — typically late September into October depending on elevation. The final two weeks before that frost are often the best of the entire season: the bugs are at maximum size, and trout are feeding hard ahead of winter. If you get a warm, windy afternoon in late September, drop what you're doing.

Hopper Season FAQ

What month is best for hopper fishing?

August is the reliable peak across most of the Rocky Mountain West, with early September often producing the largest fish. Hoppers become viable in late July and shut down after the first hard frosts.

What time of day should I fish hoppers?

Late morning through late afternoon — roughly 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Grasshoppers need warmth to become active, so hopper fishing runs opposite the dawn-and-dusk pattern of most summer trout fishing. Watch water temperature during those hours.

Do hoppers work on tailwaters?

They can, but they're most productive on rivers with grassy, meadow-like banks. Tailwater sections running through pasture or hay ground fish well; sections in bare canyons don't. See our guide to tailwaters for how those fisheries differ.

Is wind bad for hopper fishing?

The opposite — wind is the best hopper indicator there is. It blows grasshoppers off streamside grass and onto the water, and it disguises your presentation. Fish the bank the wind is blowing from.