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Few poppers

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That FIRST popper might catch a shark.

But I do like the rest of them in the second pic. Being a sunfish angler, I like the two little yellow ones in the lower right the best.

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They're really good looking. I have a question though: I never have made one with so long a tail. Do you ever get situations where the fish go after the tail? (I have often had pinfish bite the tips of the tails off my jigs in saltwater).

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These 2 are mostly for redfish just wanted long profile healthy size. Modified pencil popper if you will...no legs either.

Have few bodies so I dressed a few....

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I started tying legs under now instead of the needle or drill thru bodies.....I believe Stipplepopper showed us this....

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denduke

Are the bodies hard foam or soft foam? I've found that paint works better on the hard foam poppers and permanent markers are better for coloring the soft foam ones. As far as legs and tail length go for my bass/chain pickerel/pike poppers they're usually long. Trying to create the illusion of a larger meal. Tails on my salt water are long also. For pan fish I try to keep the tail no longer than the length of the hook shank and the legs just long enough not to stick straight out from the body. Too often, I've watched sunfish just grab the long tail or legs rather than the popper itself. On my smaller poppers the legs are tied onto the shank. Still up in the air on the larger poppers. Haven't started tying them yet. My main problem is they often end up on an angle rather than straight. The fish probably don't care but it bothers me

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I have a theory.... it would seem that we fish poppers by letting them sit still and occasionally giving them a yank... at least that's how I do it. On the other hand, streamers are retrieved more or less steadily, and the fish might be less likely to nibble at the tail. I do need to mention that a lot of the rubber jig tails I used to use had red tips, and maybe a solid colored one would have had fewer tip-nibbles. If my theory is right, then long tailed poppers would suffer more tip-nibbles. Any thoughts?

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I think it depends on the species, FlaFly. In salt water around here, the main targets bluefish, stripers and weakfish tend not to nibble on a fly. The few sea bass I've caught I couldn't really tell since the fly was usually hung up on the bottom and when it broke loose there was a sea bass attached. In fresh water, most of the sunfish are nibblers, Green sunfish and the local hybrids that have inherited the mouth size usually don't nibble at the tail or legs. Crappie inhale the fly. Both bass species may follow a fly but I've never seen one nibble on one. I tend to strip my poppers in with a steady retrieve with an occasional pause. It maybe where I fish but a "yank" with the popper tends to scare the fish off. With streamer/bait fish patterns I've seen smaller fish nibble at the tails even with the steady retrieve. It's really visible fishing around beaver huts up in Ontario where if there aren't smallies or pike hanging around there's always a troop of minnows and small perch following the streamer back nipping at the tail.

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Guest

The bodies are kinda a hodgepodge of matl... Custom cork, premade styrofoam cupped, foam, prepainted cork(lil bream bugs). You always gonna miss short strikers, bream on large bugs. Most times I pop bass bugs aggressively calling fish over/up. If I get bunch of bream smacks (indicating a bed) if time allows I switch to 4/5wt rigged w/tiny popper or weighted wet to pick up some bream. Notice I have 6 sizes. Lotta times I use the third smallest size which are tied on short shank/big bite octopus hooks which allows most hookups/landing on average bass and the occasional bream gets hooked too.

 

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Here's a catch one evening....notice the occasional bream....

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Octopus hooks in lil foam bodies

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Guest

One local state lake here in M'sipi has a 15 bass limit and slot 1 over18"-24". The theory is to keep over population of small stunted bass. Traditionally I always release bass but now been killing'em...one lake you can catch lotta lil bass and cleaned couple and had eggs..so stunted. Put and take fishery concept around here to my disappointment....

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That's quite a basin full of Bass!

Certainly different regulations wherever you go and the importance of knowing them.

You get caught with a haul like that up here in Ontario and you'll lose your right to fish for many years, plus all your fishing gear, your boat, your car, the fish you just caught, etc, etc, plus pay a hefty fine the day you go to court.

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