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'Lil Bass Popper tutorial...

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I relize no one asked for this but always try to get youngins/adults too into fly fishing, fly tying, fishing, hunting. Lotta this stuff like the cork,feathers, doll eyes, paint, hooks, rubber legs didn't come from a fly shop. Mostly the wifey's chickens running around and Wallyworld....Anyway, hope this helps a least one tyer!

 

I start out with some small corks from the hardware store and cut, shape with emery paper, razor knife. Balance the corks to the size of your hooks.

http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/5858/10091420sk.jpg

 

Next I take some bendable worm hooks from Wallyworld and make hump shanks out'em and split the bottom of the corks and line with thread and glue them to the hooks. http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5445/10091430tl.jpg

 

After a day or so for the glue to dry I paint the bodies a few times with some Testors paint from the model section of WW. You'd be surprised at some of the hot colors they have.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/1816/10091477gk.jpg

 

After a day or so after the paint coats are hard put'em in your vice and tie in saddle hackles for tails, with flashbaeu, crystal flash, rubber legs, etc. Then tie in a couple of hackles and wind around the hook and whip finish right behind the cork body.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8297/10091462xe.jpg

 

After you do the tails take a pair of pliers and some of your rubber legs ( mine came from a jig skirt making kit from BP Shop) and using a large enough needle to get the rubbers in the needle eye push them trough the cork at angle from back to front and each side. The legs I have are matted together so I leave 2 or 3 together for a stouter leg. This is tricky and sometimes it all screws up and you gotta start over. Soon you'll get the hang of doing it.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4751/10091498sh.jpg

 

Now you can get some glitter fingernail polish and jazz'em up, glue some doll eyes (also from WallyW), dabb on spots, whatever!

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/949/bassbugeyesen4.jpg

 

I skipped a step that you can do after you get the hang of it. That is before you tie your tails on and hackle tie in couple of strands of 20# mono on the back of the hook bend and when finifhed start your thread on the hook eye and bend the mono just right and tie of at the hook eye. With a little practice you can learn to seperate the 2 with just the right bend to make the popper weedless!

 

Hope this helps someone. Later DL

post-943-1234404395_thumb.jpg

post-943-1234405058_thumb.jpg

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I relize no one asked for this but always try to get youngins/adults too into fly fishing, fly tying, fishing, hunting. Lotta this stuff like the cork,feathers, doll eyes, paint, hooks, rubber legs didn't come from a fly shop. Mostly the wifey's chickens running around and Wallyworld....Anyway, hope this helps a least one tyer!

 

I start out with some small corks from the hardware store and cut, shape with emery paper, razor knife. Balance the corks to the size of your hooks.

http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/5858/10091420sk.jpg

 

Next I take some bendable worm hooks from Wallyworld and make hump shanks out'em and split the bottom of the corks and line with thread and glue them to the hooks. http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5445/10091430tl.jpg

 

After a day or so for the glue to dry I paint the bodies a few times with some Testors paint from the model section of WW. You'd be surprised at some of the hot colors they have.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/1816/10091477gk.jpg

 

After a day or so after the paint coats are hard put'em in your vice and tie in saddle hackles for tails, with flashbaeu, crystal flash, rubber legs, etc. Then tie in a couple of hackles and wind around the hook and whip finish right behind the cork body.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8297/10091462xe.jpg

 

After you do the tails take a pair of pliers and some of your rubber legs ( mine came from a jig skirt making kit from BP Shop) and using a large enough needle to get the rubbers in the needle eye push them trough the cork at angle from back to front and each side. The legs I have are matted together so I leave 2 or 3 together for a stouter leg. This is tricky and sometimes it all screws up and you gotta start over. Soon you'll get the hang of doing it.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4751/10091498sh.jpg

 

Now you can get some glitter fingernail polish and jazz'em up, glue some doll eyes (also from WallyW), dabb on spots, whatever!

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/949/bassbugeyesen4.jpg

 

I skipped a step that you can do after you get the hang of it. That is before you tie your tails on and hackle tie in couple of strands of 20# mono on the back of the hook bend and when finifhed start your thread on the hook eye and bend the mono just right and tie of at the hook eye. With a little practice you can learn to seperate the 2 with just the right bend to make the popper weedless!

 

Hope this helps someone. Later DL

 

They look a lot better than the one I made out of pre-cut foam. Thanks for the tutorial, I now have a project for my Scouts when we start working on the fish and fly fishing merit badges.

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:bugeyes: Wow denduke those are great. Thanks for posting the "how to" If everyone on the forum did

as you did ,we would have an awesome database for teaching others. Cudos , for taking the inititive of showing us the way.

Fred

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nice job denduke, wonder how a really scaled down version would work for trout or mackerel up here...

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Kyle

Back in the old days we could buy cork popper heads in a variety of sizes. They had a slit running front to back on the bottom of the head, and you just slipped the slit down over the hook shank. Back then I never thought of preparing a thread base and using glue, but they all seemed to hold up ok. Nowadays popper bodies are made out of some hard foam-like material with a hole through the center.

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Kyle

Back in the old days we could buy cork popper heads in a variety of sizes. They had a slit running front to back on the bottom of the head, and you just slipped the slit down over the hook shank. Back then I never thought of preparing a thread base and using glue, but they all seemed to hold up ok. Nowadays popper bodies are made out of some hard foam-like material with a hole through the center.

 

I think you mean the soft "foam-like material with a hole through the center". The Rainy's popper bodies would be one example. The Wapsi soft foam bodies I have seen have both a hole through the center and a slot in the bottom. Every hard foam body I have seen has only a slot at the bottom of the popper body. Seating the hook low via a slot in the bottom seems to be preferred to positioning the hook through a hole in the center of the body.

 

Spirit River also sells popper bodies. I am not familiar with their products.

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