Insect Family Acrididae (Grasshoppers)

Mayflies

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Taxonomic Navigation -?-

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

» Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

» Class Insecta (Insects)

» Order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers and Crickets)

» Family Acrididae (Grasshoppers)

Common Name

Match	Common Name
	Grasshoppers

Pictures Below ↓

Grasshoppers are the most exciting terrestrial (Terrestrial: Insects which live on land and are fed on by trout only when they incidentally fall into the water are known as "terrestrials" to fly anglers, and they're very important in late summer.) insects for the trout angler. Sometimes on hot summer days large trout lie along the banks waiting for them.

Where & When

Time Of Year (?): Mid-July through August

Trout may rise to hopper flies at any time of year, but they are best on meadow streams in late August when the fish actually are on the lookout for them.

Acrididae Fly Fishing Tips

Grasshopper imitations should not settle on the water with the gentle, dainty touch of a high-floating mayfly pattern. The proper hopper fisherman takes pride in the splat his fly makes as it touches down.

Ernest Schwiebert wrote of grasshoppers in Matching the Hatch:

My experiences with grasshoppers have taught me three lessons valuable in fishing them: the gentle twitch of the fly, bouncing the fly off bankside grass, and dapping or swimming the fly on a short line. All of these tricks are suggest of the natural in the water.

These imitations provide outstanding fishing in many situations, even when the fish have not seen real hoppers. Their large, low-floating, buggy bodies have a universal appeal which makes them excellent searching patterns (Searching pattern: Any artificial fly pattern used when trout that aren't feeding selectively on anything in particular. A searching pattern may be an attractor or an imitation of something specific that the fish might favor even though it's not currently hatching.). Their buoyancy also makes them handy for the trick of using a large dry fly as an indicator for a nymph tied to its hook shank below.

Pictures of 1 Grasshopper Specimen:

Acrididae (Grasshoppers) Grasshopper Adult

View 7 Pictures

Collected August 4, 2020 from Green Lake Outlet in Idaho
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on August 20, 2020

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Jargon Defined:

Natural: A natural is a real insect (or similar creature) a trout might eat. The term is used to specify the real thing as opposed to its artificial imitation.

Nymph: The juvenile, underwater stages of mayflies, stoneflies, dragonflies, and damselflies and other aquatic insects whose juvenile stages are covered by hard exoskeletons. The word can also refer to the fishing flies which imitate these creatures, in which case it is used as a blanket term for flies imitating any underwater stage of an invertebrate (except for crayfish and leeches).

Searching patterns: Any artificial fly pattern used when trout that aren't feeding selectively on anything in particular. A searching pattern may be an attractor or an imitation of something specific that the fish might favor even though it's not currently hatching.

Terrestrial: Insects which live on land and are fed on by trout only when they incidentally fall into the water are known as "terrestrials" to fly anglers, and they're very important in late summer.

Useful References:

Schwiebert, Ernest G. 1955. Matching the Hatch. MacMillan Publishing Company.

Swisher, Doug and Carl Richards. 2000. Selective Trout. The Lyons Press.