In this pattern, US Fly Fishing Team Member Jay Buchner demonstrates just how to tie knots in feathers to create hopper legs.

RECIPE

• Hook: Mustad 9671, Dai Riki 280
• Thread: 3/0 mono to match body color
• Tail: Dyed red Elk
• Body: Polypropolene Yarn
• Hackle: Brown or badger
• UnderWing: deer hair
• OverWing: Turkey tail sprayed with urethane
• Legs: Golden pheasant tail fibers knotted
• Head: Deer Hair Spun in 2 bunches

Jay Buchner was born and raised in eastern Iowa, and spent a great deal of his childhood on family fishing excursions to Michigan and Ontario, Canada. He learned to tie flies at age 8 from his grandfather.

His fishing experience covers the gamut, from bait fishing for catfish in the Maquoketa and Mississippi rivers, to plug fishing and fly fishing for Northern pike and Smallmouth Bass in the lakes of Canada, to fly fishing for trout in the cold waters of Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic, and England, Sweden, France, Spain, Slovakia, Portugal, Finland and tigerfishing in the Zambezi river of Africa.

After moving to Jackson, Wyoming, in the late 60's, Jay turned his love of fishing into a career, guiding fisher people in the Jackson Hole area for nearly 35 years and owning and operating both a retail mail order fly fishing catalog and a fly fishing shop in Jackson.

For several years, Jay and Don Veirs, an entomologist from Logan, Utah, have taught Fly Fishing Entomology through the Teton Science School in Kelly, Wyoming. The class includes field work as well as lab work in identifying aquatic trout foods, fly tying demonstrations relating fly patterns to the "real thing," and fishing opportunities which put to practical use the knowledge learned about the insects and their life cycles.

Jay and his wife, Kathy, have one daughter, Chani, who is now 28 years of age. She enjoys her opportunities to go fly fishing with friends or family whenever she can.

The Buchners have been involved with Trout Unlimited and the Federation of Fly Fishers for many years, attending Conclaves, conventions and the like, demonstrating fly tying and promoting their various business adventures.

Their fly patterns and tying techniques have been featured in such publications as The Second Fly Tyer's Almanac (Boyle & Whitlock), The Book of Fly Patterns (Leiser), Tying Flies with Jack Dennis and Friends (Dennis), Fly Tyer magazine, Fly Fisherman magazine and American Angler magazine.

Articles and photographs by the Buchners have also appeared in numerous fishing and outdoor magazines, such as Fly Fisherman, Fly Tyer, American Angler, Backpacker, Mountain Bike, and the Scientific Anglers Handbooks.