Of all the artificials used by trout anglers probably none are more forgiving, as far as presentation and float, than grasshoppers. They can give a novice fly fisher a reputation as an expert. It would be difficult to fish one wrong.

The living insects fall to the water and frantic struggles to regain shore are far from delicate. Ordinarily dry flies must be presented daintily and fished drag-free, but not hoppers. For them, alighting with an audible splash and an erratic course during the drift is natural.

Commotion that would cause fish to flee other imitations often can attract them to crickets and hoppers.

About all you have to do to fish one successfully is to stay inconspicuous, throw upstream to a likely place, let it float back down and watch for a take. A little drag or deviation from the current direction often seems beneficial.

Any water near a grassy bank or shoreline is a good bet for hoppers. There doesn't even have to be evidence of fish feeding. Fishing the water (casting to likely spots when there are not rises) during the hottest part of an afternoon is often productive.

If a strike isn't forthcoming try twitching the hopper as it floats with the current. Keep in mind that both grasshoppers and crickets are bulky enough to make an audible splat when they fall on the water. This sound can bring fish for some distance. A little action during the drift helps them locate their prey.

Many anglers like to cast imitations up on the shoreline grass, then gently pull them loose to fall to the water. It makes a very natural presentation.

Sound easy? It is. AlI except that part about being inconspicuous. Summer and fall are hopper and cricket time. Hoppers are late starters. They don’t start to forage until mid-afternoon and call it a day when the air cools towards evening.

They are active during the brightest part of days at a time when streams normally are low and crystal clear and trout are most easily spooked.

Wear clothing that blends with the stream's environs. Move cautiously and slowly. Stay low or, better yet, approach on hands and knees.

I recalI hearing a "stand-up" angler snicker, some years back as I crept up to a pool on Mt. Vernon creek that he had drawn a blank on a few minutes earlier. I stayed well back, cast from a kneeling position and took a nice brown.

A little later I saw the same man. He was fishing on his hands and knees. Fish are used to seeing bank foliage moving in the wind. Slow movements are not alarming but sudden ones are. Shooting line instead of false-casting to get it out eliminates a lot of alarming rod-waving. So does sidearm rather than overhead casting.

More and more anglers are beginning to appreciate the effectiveness of terrestrial imitations and these patterns, especially hoppers, have been proliferating lately.

Here is how to tie one of the simpler, more effective hopper imitations. You can make a cricket the same way by using black or dark brown material.

Assemble the following materials: Deer body hair for the body, collar and head: yellow buttonhole thread for ribbing: mottled turkey quill for wings: a 2 or 3X long hook and some 3/0 tying thread.

Clamp the hook in a tying vise and coat its shank with fly head cement(clear lacquer). Wrap the hook shank from eye to bend with tying thread and half-hitch at rear. Coat this winding with cement. Tie on the ribbing material.

Select a clump (about the diameter of a kitchen match) of deer hair for the body. Fasten this to the rear of the hook with a thread wrap and half-hitch and cement this knot. Advance the tying thread about three quarters of the way along the hook shank and half-hitch it there.

Fold the deer hair ahead so that it envelopes the hook shank and tie off where the thread was previously half-hitched. Cement this knot.

Spiral the ribbing thread forward and tie off in the same way. Four turns of ribbing is about right. Clip off excess ribbing thread and projecting hair ends.

Cut a three-eighths inch wide section of turkey quill and saturate with fly head cement (clear lacquer). Allow to dry for a few seconds then roll into a half cylinder and tie on for a wing, concave side down. Trim this so it extends about one third of its length beyond the hook bend.

Now, put a little varnish or Plio-bond cement on the wing tip and squeeze so the back end of the roof shaped wing is brought together like a natural hopper's.

Tie another small clump of deer hair in place and clip to finish forming a head. Cement these knots and finish with a whip knot and more cement.

If you want to give the body more color, it can be wrapped with floss before the ribbing.

Twelve and fourteen are good hook sizes.

Remember grasshoppers are active in the hottest part of the day and crickets will take up the morning and evening slack.

Muddler minnows in small sizes make good hopper imitations. Any deer hair pattern will float well without fly oil.