Playing with poppers ...

[AndrewP 0]

Playing around at the vice, I came up with this idea for a popper. Just two different size popper heads, the smaller one becoming the “rest of the body” and housing the hook.

 

Does it work any better? Don’t know yet; test pond results are promising as the body floats high and wiggles a little bit when popped.

 

 

 

AP

[bellevue.chartreuse.trout 0]

Interesting idea. Show some pictures with what get's 'stuck' with them. Then we can all congratulate you.

BCT

[feathers5 0]

Articulated poppers, neat. You are definitely thinking outside the box.

[Piker20 0]

are you just threading your tippet through the first popper or Lining that some way? I can see a triple linked version working really well on some predators.

[AndrewP 0]

Piker: Using the Fish Skull Articulating Shanks on the first popper head, then hook on the second.

 

Yeah, I want to play around with a couple of options -- treble-body, and maybe a floater/diver articulated body ....

 

 

AP

[mikechell 0]

That's a pretty neat idea. Articulated foam poppers. I like it, a lot.

[FlaFly 0]

I had thought at a glance you used a long-shank, small gap hook in the front head. Then after hooking the rear hook eye on it, you could push the front hook barb into the rear of the head. Or maybe even bend it. All this before the super glue dries on the front part of course.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Andrew, after having made floating bugs that wobble and dart and articulated floating bugs for years now, I have found that the less dressing material you have on the better the "action" will be. Especially hindering to the action is a skirt, even something as sparse as cactus chenille will inhibit the action. If you like it the way it is that is fine, but I'd try a version without the palmered skirt. I have found that some tinsel or shiny braid material to cover the tail thread wraps looks nice and allows the bug to really lively-up.

 

Kirk

[AndrewP 0]

Kirk: Hmmm, something to think about and test. Thanks for your thoughts. I have to agree that the tail materials is for show; if you think about it, the Zara Spooks and other topwater spinfishing lures don't have all the fluff on the back end .....

 

Can you post some pics of your articulated bugs? I was playing with some ideas for floater-divers, but had not come up with anything that was easy to do/replicate. The best idea I had was to articulate a Wiggle Bug pattern ......

 

 

AP

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Articulating a wiggle bug pattern would be good and a little tail should be fine.

 

I made this post a while ago and made these for a few years but they are a lot of work and I've been doing other stuff. I wound up making some other baitfish shapes that worked better than this one, the little video doesn't really do it justice.

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=54302&hl=%2Bfranken+%2Bfish

 

I haven't done any articulated stuff lately, I'll have to dig around and see if I have any thing hanging around that I can photograph at home. Actually, I haven't done any articulated "poppers" and none with the hook in the back section. But I'll see what I can find other than the Franken Fish.

 

I did see on Pat Cohen's Face Book page a few days ago, he had an articulated foam diver looked like for Pike as it had quite a few sections. He had the sloped face kind of like a wiggle bug with a hook in the head and three or four pieces of foam attached with articulated shanks with I believe a hook in the last section.

 

Kirk

[mikechell 0]

Articulating a wiggle bug pattern would be good and a little tail should be fine.

 

Kirk

Huh ... I consider a little tail to ALWAYS be fine.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Mike, you make the man-crowd proud!

[AndrewP 0]

So ............... this is an attempt at an articulated wiggle-bug. Floater-diver that will give that Rapala-like wiggle when retrieved.

 

 

I have some other ideas to work on, like perhaps folding some thin-foam sheets and cutting them into templates. I'll keep posting the ideas here, and of course if there is any direct success I'll try to post pics of that as well.

[agn54 0]

I like the ideas of articulation here, I am curious to see how they work. I would really like to see a video of them in the water like Kirk posted. But one suggestion I would make on the wiggle minnow is to cut the face sloping downward which will help it dive below the surface and give it better action

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Andrew, that looks great. I think AGN is right, the top/front needs a slice taken off to help it dive. Check out this jointed wiggle minnow a friend of mine posted a picture of recently.

 

Kirk