Looking to get into making popers!

[tidewaterfly 0]

One of the best fly anglers I've ever known, Capt. Norm Bartlett, ties some of the ugliest & simplistic flies I've ever seen.

The sliders I posted above with the deer hair dressing were inspired by Norm. I once fished with him & a group of other fellows from the old MD FLY Anglers club, and Norm handed me a slider while we were waist deep in the Potomac. I started that day with topwaters, which didn't produce well but we left the water for lunch & when we went back out I left my topwater flies in my truck. As luck would have it, the topwater bite turned on later in the day. Norm gave me one of his, which was an unpainted cork body hot glued to the hook, and there was a hole drilled in the back side of the cork. Norm had hot glued a clump of natural deerhair, like shown on my versions above, into the hole. No thread, just hot glue! I caught a lot of fish on that bug that day. My versions, made a bit later, are a little bit more involved, but still quite simple. Of course the point is they don't have to be "pretty" to catch fish.

 

BTW, Norm has held a couple of IGFA fly rod world records too!

 

Mike, you & Norm would have gotten along great! Both of you share that simplistic & cheap mind frame for making flies. Nothing wrong with that either, as we all do what works best for us & what we enjoy!

[ditz2 0]

When tying larger poppers with straight shank hooks you can wrap the hook shank with chenille and then add epoxy to the chenille before inserting into the popper body. It will be very strong. I still prefer dedicated hooks. If the kink shanked hooks are too long for your short body poppers you can use hump shanked hooks which are shorter than the kink shanked hooks. Remember poppers usually have either a flat or cupped face. Sliders have a pointed nose and are much more quiet when retrieved. Both have their place. The pretty poppers and sliders are for your benefit. The ugly ones catch just as many fish IMO.....Hair is a little more durable but generally not lively in the water though I am not sure that matters to the fish. I believe the commotion that is made of the surface is the major attractor especially for bass. I do think the sunfish prefer the legs which is why I like spiders. Many times sunfish don't want the bait moved at all as any movement will send them scurrying back to their shelter. However this is not always true. I seldom use anything but yellow anymore because these old eyes can see them better and my fish count does not seem to have decreased at all. I love to see fish suck a popper off the top...

[FlaFly 0]

It doesn't always have to pop. Once I was paddling across a lake, with my popper dragging behind the boat, and I had to stop to retrieve a bluegill. He hit it clear out in the middle of the lake!

[cjsnyder1234 0]

Well looky here I found one foam popper body in the bottome of a bin when surching through my tying stuff.

 

[cjsnyder1234 0]

First Thanks to all that helped me with this!

 

I landed up watching hours of youtube videos and landed up ordering the gary krebs jig smaller set with some foam in the three sizes that the jigs are made for. As far as the hooks go I got mustads 3366 in three sizes. Hook choice may change gonna order a few kinds to try out but I have read good reviews about the 3366's so those are the first batch. Feathers I have loads of strung saddle hackles in all colors so those will do for now. I would like some whiting farms american capes but those seam to be out of stock everywhere in the colors I want.

 

I do have a few more questions about tailing I have seen fur either buck tail or craft/fox for the tails and combos of fur/saddles for tails. What would anyone sugest for tailing? any one of those work better?

 

Finish I will go with an epoxy of some sort I have a rod building kit that i can make a fly dryer out of so didnt need to buy one seperate.

 

Thanks again for all the help! wont get any of this stuff in till after Christmas but there is plenty of winter left for some good tying!

[heavynets 0]

The possibilities are endless. I use marabou, bucktail, crystal flash, craft fur and saddle or some combination of those. I frequently wrap the tail with schlappen or add rubber legs.

[Stippled Popper 0]

The Mustad 3366 hook has a good hook gape and strength but it has no kink in the shank.

You will need to be more careful about how well the hook is cemented to the body as hooks

with no kink can more easily rotate throwing the whole fly out of alignment in the water.

 

The shank is also shorter. If you shape your own bodies, you can work around that easily

enough.

[tidewaterfly 0]

I agree with the other comments about the 3366. I tied a lot of flies on them over the years. It's hard to beat as a good economical hook for many types of flies. I now use better quality hooks simply because the 3366 is not particularly sharp, but they will sharpen quite easily.

 

As far as tail materials. That's often a personal preference issue. All materials you've mentioned will work. Specific materials, such as marabou can have issues with fouling around the hook, but when combined with some stiffer material that problem can be limited. I don't usually use marabou alone for popper tails, but when I use it it's usually combined with a hackle tail.

 

My own personal preference for bass & panfish poppers is splayed neck hackle, but I'll use other materials too. There's no right or wrong to what you choose, just keep in mind that each has it's own properties & may or may not be the best choice depending on what else you decide to use with it. For the most part, use what you like & experiment to see what you like best. You may decide that there will be various materials you'll like.

[shoebop 0]

I think you are over-thinking this whole thing. Experiment with whatever tailing, color schemes, flash, rubber legs or whatever. One is not necessarily "better" than another. Pay more attention to proportions and amounts of materials added to your poppers. Besides hook gapes the other thing to avoid is over dressing.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

For bream bugs it is hard to beat the old U.S. commercial bugs sold by Accardo and Gaines. A few pieces of Rayon floss teased out with few strands of rubber legs tied on top. Super easy and the fish approve.

[ditz2 0]

As stated above there is no right or wrong. IMO the only thing you can do wrong is not have enough hook gap......As long as the color is yellow.
:

[tjeeper 0]

The possibilities are endless. I use marabou, bucktail, crystal flash, craft fur and saddle or some combination of those. I frequently wrap the tail with schlappen or add rubber legs.

 

I use marabou, webby feathers or schlappen, crystal flash for the tails. Like others have written, I cover the hook shank with some coarse thread and cement that good.

 

I like to use preformed foam bodies for my poppers. Over the years, I have tied with deer hair, balsa wood, cork, and foam. The deer hair bodies are very artistic, but if the fishing is fast, deer hair poppers get chewed up and soggy. I found myself changing flies often. Then I discovered foam bodies, and have never went back.

 

I epoxy on the foam body, then use a strong needle to push through the foam and pull through rubber legs. I finish up with a sharpie pen to add eyes, gills, and mottling.

 

Lately, the best source for foam bodies has been Rainys.

[ditz2 0]

tjeeper...do you ever put the flat side of the body as the top of the body. I actually kinda like the flat top/round bottom popper bodies. I like to make my own bodies so I don't buy the foam bodies at the fly shops. I am sure they are great though.

[tjeeper 0]

tjeeper...do you ever put the flat side of the body as the top of the body. I actually kinda like the flat top/round bottom popper bodies. I like to make my own bodies so I don't buy the foam bodies at the fly shops. I am sure they are great though.

 

I have never tried tying a popper with the flat side up. With flat up, and round side down, does the popper float and pop with the hook down? I would think it would want to roll around, hmmm, that might attract a finicky bass.

 

Good quality foam bodies are very durable. Good ones, in the sizes I like, can be a bit pricey at upwards of a dollar each. However, I rarely lose a popper and when one breaks off, often the fish kicks it out and I find it floating a few minutes later. I have some foam bodies that I have recycled more than once. I pull off the foam body, retie the tail (which usually gets beat up the worst), refresh the sharpie decor, and glue it back up.

 

On my annual trip to western Ontario, I have caught and released hundreds of smallies on the same popper. The tail got chewed beyond recognition, but the fish did not care. Brought it home, tied up a new tail, and took it back the next trip.

 

Here is a photo of one of my rehab'ed foam poppers:

[cjsnyder1234 0]

Well here is my first finished popper, yet to order something for the clear coat but that won't be long.

 

#1 mustad 3366