Mop Flies

[The Mad Duck 0]

After reading some articles about Mop Flies, I decided to give them a try.

The first bunch I tied on either a #12 curved Nymph hook or a #12 scud hook.

I used a mop finger and either tied in a hackle or used a crystal fiber to make a collar. All had bead heads and some I added a little lead wire for a faster sink. I have also tied a few of these with no bead or weight as well.

 

I was making some panfish poppers one day and thought to myself,hummm? I wonder what a mop finger behind a popper body would look like? So...

Small popper hook

Mop finger tail

Small soft foam popper body.

Black, Medium round rubber legs

Hackle made either from either crystal ice type material or standard hackle

These poppers have a funky attitude in the water. When the tail soaks up water, it causes the popper to stand upright in the water. It has elicited some very violent strikes from the fish I caught on it.

 

Furthering the variations I tried another idea that popped into my head.

#12 curved nymph hook

Mop finger tail

Mop body

Weighted green eyes

Medium black,round rubber legs.

 

I have caught tons of fish on the standard Mop Fly and the Mopper Popper. I haven't had a chance to fish the variation with the eyes yet. Mostly I have bass and panfished with these flies and was looking forward to getting them in front of some trout,but that is going to have to wait. I managed to crush my Pinky finger yesterday and looks like on the sidelines for about a month or so.

[dogfacedoc 0]

These poppers have a funky attitude in the water. When the tail soaks up water, it causes the popper to stand upright in the water. It has elicited some very violent strikes from the fish I caught on it.

 

 

Interesting, I'm gonna tie a couple of these up this weekend!

[SilverCreek 0]

Very inventive. Thanks for posting.

[Mike West 0]

Heres some Mops for ya.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/MopMasters/?ref=share

[SilverCreek 0]

Heres some Mops for ya.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/MopMasters/?ref=share

 

Thanks Mike. Nice collection of mop flies.

[FishnPhil 0]

Even a local shop has some, saw them a couple of weeks ago. Those bright green should make for good caddis nymphs

[The Mad Duck 0]

Dr says I can fish next weekend!! I tied this one up especially for Trout and I'm thinking it will work.

[Mark Knapp 0]

I normally associate mops with bass and blue gills, and we don't have any. I like these and like others have said, they could work really nicely for trout.

[The Mad Duck 0]

I got to a pond yesterday that I use to test float flies,to see how they float or swim. Fortunately, this pond is slap full of Bream and Bass. I was honestly there to see if I could manage using a fly and spinning rod with this huge dressing on my busted up pinky finger. I made some adjustments on how I grip the rods and was able to figure out a way to handle both the spinning and fly rod..YAY

 

Anyway, I tied on the Mop fly with the eyes and legs and it was a smashing success. This pond had a levee wall blow out last fall during the two hurricanes we had in two weeks . I knew there were a few fish left in there,but WOW. I caught a bunch of really large Bream in there. Several in the 9-10 inch size range. Evidently, the smaller fish from last years hatch were swept out and the mature fish were able to stay put, and they have been eating WELL! I saw signs of a nice spring hatch and it appears that the Bream are spawning again.

Anyway, I caught 35-40 nice Bream and a half dozen bass in the 3/4 to 1.5 pound bass on this Mop fly in a little over an hour.

 

I'm leaving this afternoon for the mountains (NC). I have a day of Smallmouth fishing and a day of Trout fishing in a tailwater stream in Tennessee later this week. I have caught a bunch of species on these Mop flies so far, and cant wait to see if its as deadly on Trout as everything else.

[Philly 0]

I've caught a few trout on mop flies, mainly ones weighted with a bead. As the mop piece absorbs water it's going to sink. You can dress it with some type of floatant. I did that with some of my floating mop flies when I was last week and it worked really well. You could pass it off as a caterpillar of some sort. I'm going to have to tie up some like yours and see what happens.