Sharing one of my late season terrestrials... deadly little number....

Nothing special in there... Pheasant tail for body ribbed with Gold Wire, Pheasant tail ( knotted) legs, CDC puffs for wing and Ginger Hackle. I use it in #12 and below.

Well I like the fancy ones too... so long as they have simple triggers

No, but the legs are part of a major trigger... it might be more interesting to see if you can identify any others before I tell you what they are???? And it wouldn't worry me if you were having a go Jack, feel free .

Clark; The "Simple" Reference refers to the fact That I feel I will be able to tie the fly.   Jack

Nick F wrote: Sure. The CDC is a perfect imitation of drowned wings, plus it will impart a realistic movement. I'm picking the fly will ride with the bum sunk 90% of the time, so to a trout those legs are going to look like KFC looks to a hungry league player.

What he said

Ok I'll have a stab in the dark. I'd say the legs are the main trigger, especially as with the material they're tied in they'd presumably break through the surface film. Then the tapered abdomen would presumably sink through the surface film too. CDC is the wings, and would impart a bit of movement and trap air, imitating the wings. Though I've actually just checked on the net and NZ grasshoppers have very small wings (the males) and the females don't have wings at all, so I think the major role the CDC would play would be holding the fly up in the right part of the water and making sure it rides right, so the abdomen and legs sink just through the surface film. Then the hackle would imitate the round thorax.

So triggers... First up would be the legs. Then the sunken abdomen. The CDC wings would trap air, provide movement and in the cases of males imitate wings. Then the Hackle would imitate the thorax.

Something like that? What'd I miss?

Clark Reid wrote:    It's really irrelevant which hoppers have wings or not as New Zealand trout are almost never selective and certainly not on hoppers... it's unlikely the trout have read the books to know which hoppers have wings and those that don't and I'm fairly certain they only sex insects by close inspection of their genitals.... . The aim, of the flytier in most cases for NZ fish is to imitate food. The need to "Match the Hatch" while it does occur in Southland and the Wairarapa on Mayflies is virtually non-existent and one of the biggest perpetrated on New Zealand anglers. We just rarely have the circumstances here which create that feeding/survival style. However, having been caught a couple of times, late season fish can be incredibly wary... this is often mistaken for selectivity.