What Makes A Smallmouth Popper Good?

[Havtafish 0]

Tied these up this morning. No hackle and no hackle spears for a tail just hair and a bit of sparkle. They also have small rattles in them. Makes me ask the question. What in your opinion makes a good smallie popper? What would you add to the ones below excluding hackle to make it a "killing" pattern.

 

 

[tidewaterfly 0]

Nothing, they'll work fine the way they are. Great proportions & real nice color combinations too! :headbang:

 

To answer your question, IMO profile, movement & the noise they make are what's important when making poppers. Color can be important at times, but not as much as these other features. You also need a good, sharp hook & it has to have sufficient gape to get a good hook set, regardless of the size!

 

Most of the poppers I make for either LMB or SMB, I prefer to dress with splayed neck hackle for the tails. I like the way it kicks when you retrieve it, but I've also caught plenty of bass on poppers dressed with hair or marabou. I like to add a little flash material in the tails too, and usually a black hackle collar. I like to have some contrast in the color, so a black collar works well with most anything. This is just my personal choice. I feel it adds something that gives me confidence in fishing them, and if you have confidence in the fly you choose, you're going to catch more fish, because you'll use it more. I like rattles in them also!

 

You can IMO, over dress a popper, and many commercially produced ones I've seen are over dressed. What you have, again IMO, is just right! Great Job!

 

Many years ago I was fishing with a group on the Potomac River near Shepardstown,WV, and was given a cork slider by one of the guys. It was simply a cork popper body, hot glued to the hook, with a sparse tail of natural brown bucktail on a size 2 popper hook. It wasn't painted, just the natural cork color. A small hole was made in the back of the popper body, and the hair was hot glued in place. No tying at all involved. Simple & quick!

 

I caught a ton of Smallmouths & several large Bluegills on that bug that day. It wasn't pretty, but is sure was productive.

 

Let us know how you do with them!

 

 

 

 

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

I'm going to echo Tidewater in saying add nothing. In fact, take the rubber off and you'll have a killer popper for Redfish.

To me, a good popper is the same regardless of the species and it begins with construction of the head/hook. First, as you've done in your poppers is to choose a hook that will have room to hook the fish after putting the popper head on. Next, decide if you want a popper that is going to chug very loudly or just push water, or skip. You can achieve that with the shape of the cupped face, material used for the head, and slant the face is on. Most poppers are cupped way to deep and dig in when lifting for the next cast. It doesn't take much of a cup to get a good chug.

I like splayed or Deceiver style tails for large poppers but am growing fonder of single clump hair tails with forked silicone and usually a palmered hackle skirt. I will say that I prefer somewhat of a full tail but not accomplished with piles of hair, instead I like using materials that when tied in sparse still create the illusion of bulk such as calftail or slinky fiber.

With a slider, now, I prefer a full bulky dressing to create a good presence and push some water. Not unproportioned to the body, just a full thick body flowing from the back of the head into the tail often having a clump of spun deer body hair behind the flat head to help create a nice seamless transition between the flat back of the slider head and the hackle or dubbed skirt into the tail materials.

I don't think a popper needs to be all that fancy and full as much as I think the fish have to be in a mood to come up. Look at spinfishing poppers - a straight chunk of wood/plastic with a cupped face, sometimes a tuft of hair or feather but often just plain.

Those bugs you tied are simple but well proportioned, as Tidewater noted, and tied with enough materials to have a presence and look buggy.

 

Kirk

[P.Dieter 0]

this is great info for us newbees. I've obviously been over dressing (something I've never been accused of in my personal life).

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

this is great info for us newbees. I've obviously been over dressing (something I've never been accused of in my personal life).

 

Accusations of overdressing aren't bad, Cross-dressing is another story.

 

The thing with a popper is the popper is creating bubbles, turbulance, which give the impression and expand the appearance of the bug and its dressing also, the blunt shape of the face pushes a lot of water adding to the "large" impression.

 

Kirk

[tidewaterfly 0]

Cross dressing, that's where you wear your fishing clothes with some of your hunting clothes, right? :hyst:

 

Too much materials & a popper will tend to roll a lot. The weight of the hook hanging below, acts as a keel, but add too much & you lose the affect. Also, when over dressed the hook gape usually will end up blocked by material, making setting the hook difficult.

 

I agree with Kirk about dressing sliders full, but you have to use materials that do not add a lot of excess weight which will also cause them to roll, or block the hook gape. As he said synthetic in the tail can accomplish this, and a spun deer hair collar will also. As long as you maintain good proportions relative to the size of the hook, you won't create problems. For example, don't dress a size 6 popper/slider so that it looks like a size 1/0 popper/slider.

[Havtafish 0]

All excellent points. Do you think hair is a better material to keep the back of the fly up? I have been testing a few and noticed that my flies tied with hair seem to orient the hook horizontal (better and longer)when sitting in the water. I have been ginking the hair.

 

I too have been using some sythetics like DNA fibre. I am liking them for the translucency and lightness. I want to try some EP fibres

 

I will say this about fly poppers in general is that more times than not these smallies cant resist them. I was out one day 2 of us in the boat. I was chucking poppers and he was throwing small spinning poppers. i was outfishing that spinning popper by a mile. The stamp of fish was a lot better as well. I think there is something about the small profile along with the "big" noise and a bit o buginess. I think Kirk made a good point with the bubbles and comotion. When these fly poppers attract the fish and they come up for a look they see this small wee thing sitting helplessly. Easy prey.

 

Good to hear my tying is on the right track. I think Ill do some with and some without legs. Hard not to put legs in though they make it look so much like a little beastie.

[BigDaddyHub 0]

add a 5lb smallie to the business end of one of those poppers...that would make it better... You shouldn't have any problems taking fish with those.

[MickThompson 0]

Like some of these other guys, I tend to go light on the dressing. I like to use a little calf tail, some flash, and a few silicone or rubber legs. The most important key to a good bug, at least in my opinion, is how you cast it. You've got to get that heavy "plop" as it hits the water. If you do that, often times nothing else will matter. I caught one about 15" tonight doing just that.