Last week, while fishing Granby Ranch with Tanner and Dave, I got a friendly reminder from one of the Fraser River's finest brown trout. Twitch the hopper. I can't tell you exactly why I was stripping my Chubby Chernobyl back, but I was. And a healthy brown t-boned my fly, hard. I remembered...Twitch the hopper. I had neglected to twitch all day, but that brown reminded me. Twitch the hopper. Dead drifts aren't the only way to present a fly.

If you're an experienced angler, wise in the ways of hopper presentations, you already know that a twitched or skated hopper can elicite aggressive takes from trout. Look to this blog as a friendly reminder to twitch your hopper all weekend long. If you haven't experienced one of these impressive takes, don't be afraid to abandon your dead drift, if it isn't producing. If you are presenting the fly upstream, lift your rod tip up, shake the rod tip, watch your fly cause a bit of a commotion, and hold on.

If you are presenting the fly downstream, lift that rod tip and shake it. Let the hopper skate across the surface. Less is more when you're twitching or skating. Don't impart too much action on the fly for too long. But, cause enough of a disturbance for that big brown tucked underneath that adjacent cutbank to take notice. While "summer" might be coming to an "end," terrestrials will be on high country trouts menu's through October. Twitching or skating your hopper should be in your toolbox for the rest of terrestrial season.

P.S. If that doesn't work, throw a couple BBs on, an indicator and tick that hopper along the bottom like a nymph. A little trick I learned when I lived in Montana. Have a great weekend on the water!