The Brush Leg Hopper is a trout stream fly. Paul uses this fly in fast moving rough water. It is meant to be messy.

The brush legs will break the meniscus of the water and the fly will tumble. The legs, shown below, are made from the plastic fibres of a bench tool brush. Tie a single knot and bend at a right angle.

Because there are so many steps it is easier to production tie. Make all the legs, select the hackle.
Cut the strips of foam – approximately the width of the hook gap.

Materials

• Hook:  Size 12 Hopper hook
• Shuck:  Red Tag wool
• Body:  Trilobal chenille brown ,green or yellow
  The fly will hover below the surface.
  Ice dubbing if you want the fly to float.
• Ribbing:  Ginger hackle palmered – down and back
• Underwing:  White Poly Yarn (1/2 hank width)
• Wing:  Strip of black foam
• Legs:  Plastic paint brush fibres tied in a knot
• Tell tail:  Bright colour foam stub – this is for the fisherman
• Hackle:  Any light colour – ginger, tan, white, grizzly, etc.

Tying Instructions – Phase One

1. Cover back two thirds of hook with thread.
2. Tie in red tag – trim length is same as any red tag.
3. Tie in the chenille and wrap it to just behind the tie in point at the front of the fly.
4. Tie off and half hitch.
5. Tie in the hackle and wrap it back four turns to the bend of the hook and then back four turns to the tie off point.
6. Tie off and half hitch.
7. Trim the hackle along the top of the body, so the poly yarn hi-vis can lay flat on the finished fly.
8. Tie in the poly yarn in the front third of the hook.
9. Trim it just pass the end of the red tag.
10. Whip finish and repeat process on however many flies you are going to make. 

Tying Instructions – Phase Two

1. Reattach the thread.
2. Tie in a brush leg on each side of the fly, with the knot in the leg in line with the start of the tag. Slight bend in the legs away from the body, like an arrow head.
3. Trim the front parts of the legs behind the eye of the hook.
   Don’t use your good scissors to trim the legs!
4. Tie in the foam wing. Make an arrow shaped point and tie it in covering the front third of the hook.
5. Fold the wing along it’s mid point and trim it in line with the bend of the hook. Point your scissors facing the rear of the fly with a downward 45 degree angle. This will give you a split tail look on the wing.
6. Tie in the small orange foam behind the eye. Trim the foam after you tie on the hackle
7. Tie in the hackle and make four or five wraps over the orange foam and tie it off.
8. Half hitch over the eye.
9. Cut the top of the hackle off even with the foam.
10. Trim the legs around the length of the body. Doesn’t really matter as long as they are equal.
11. Use pliers to bend the bottom couple of mm toward the rear of the fly.

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