Favorite popper material

[DarrellP 0]

I just got some sandable foam cylinders. Not sure how to cut them. I am trying to make some simple Bream and Bass poppers similar to a Bob's banger or Arcado popper. I have used cork, preformed soft body poppers, hard foam bodies, etc. I like cork but it tends to crumble while cutting. I like deer hair poppers but they take so much time that i hate to use them. What do you guys use?

[vicente 0]

I use deer hair mostly, or just tie gurglers.

[Poopdeck 0]

Never used anything but cork for poppers and floating jig heads. I kind of enjoy the process of shaping cork. I suppose if was trying to crank out as many poppers as is humanly possible I would switch to something else but I'm not so I will always stick with cork. I think this makes me a cork curmudgeon.

[flytire 0]

wapsi hard foam perfect poppers

[Dave G. 0]

I just decided last year to roll up sheet foam coated in ca glue into cylinders. Then if I don't want plain chartreuse or yellow I use colored markers and clear coat that with sally's. I tie down the back end tight with heavy thread after the hook is pushed through coated in ca. Then I started painting them with metallic nail polish later in the season, they look fancy but the fish prefer simplicity lol !. So That's the body and a few turns of hackle at the rear, some deer hair and feathers out the back. Cheap, float forever and they work. I push some crazy legs/silly legs or what ever they are called through the body ( gotta have legs, bass around here like legs).

[RickZieger 0]

I use foam. If you have a Dremel kit and a 1/64 inch bit you can run a hole thru the foam cylinder near the edge

Then wrap thread on the hook shank. Start the eye thru the hole, Put some Zap-a-gap on the thread and shove the hook thru.

Then dress it how you want.

 

Rick

[flytire 0]

 

popper shaping tool

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Since I'm a saltwater tyer (and our bugs simply don't need all the painting and extras that freshwater tyers use....) I'm very pleased with Perfect Popper heads in soft foam... As a commercial tyer I bought them 100 per size when I could get them for the small poppers we use for baby tarpon and other species. Since they're pre-shaped and ready to go I figured out a way to glue them up (on hooks a bit bigger than they recommend for freshwater...) very quickly using a thread wrapped shank (size #1 on Mustad 34007 hooks), thin super glue (Krazy glue...), and spring loaded clothes pins to force the sides of the soft foam onto the glued up thread....

 

I call them SpeedBugs since they're very quick to tie... Popping bugs used in the salt take a terrible beating from the fish on the strike (and with what they do to the bug while you're hooked up...) so any decoration other than a minimal tail just isn't necessary... Here's a pic or two...

standard SpeedBug on #1 hook - note the short tail...

basic color variations - local shops ordered these in quantity back when I was still filling orders...

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I use the popper shaping tool that Flytire posted pictures of -- it's called the Spindler and it works beautifully with sandable foam cylinders. https://www.feather-craft.com/item/tx151/the-spindler-popper-body-shaping-tool/1.html

 

I use 1/2" to 1" wide strips of sandpaper, 150 through 320 grit, to shape the foam. You can also use an emery board

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Here's a video showing how to use the Spindler

 

https://youtu.be/zaN_vXFuqUg

[Philly 0]

Basically, I'm lazy these days. I use a lot of the pre-formed soft foam poppers and sheet craft foam for my poppers. I do use foam cylinders on occasion, don't really shape them anymore. I did at one time when I was into making jitterbugs, Tiny Torpedoes and Zara Spooks. I use them now for mini Bob's Bangers and will at times use a dremel tool to make a cupped face on them. When started tying poppers for fresh water I used large goose quills stuffed with foam, moved onto the hard foam poppers and settled on the soft foam bodies.

Those are nice looking poppers, Capt Bob, and in my most productive colors. I still coat mine with UV resin and add eyes to them. You did answer a question for me. A couple years ago I brought a half dozen air brushed popper bodies from a mainly salt water tyer I know at the International Fly Tying Symposium in NJ. They were already mounted on hooks, but I didn't look closely at them. When I got home I found the size 10 popper bodies were tied on size 4 hooks. I managed to salvage 5 of the 6 and put them on hooks more appropriate to fresh water.

[mikechell 0]

Flip flops or laminated sheet foam, cut out with hole punches.

[brs332 0]

Here's a video showing how to use the Spindler

 

https://youtu.be/zaN_vXFuqUg

 

I also use a Spindler, but one gotcha: beware of denser materials ripping the center pin out. I can't recommend for cork <frown>. However a finishing nail ground-down to a triangular point has been working well for me for cork (IIRC there are directions on doing this in another thread.)

 

I found that Craft Foam Marshmallows sand down just fine. They're softer than other solutions but $10 for a sack was hard to pass up. They're soft like Flymen Surface Seducers but paint more like Rainy's Bass Pops. One pass with the coarse grit then one pass with the fine grit and they're as good as anything I've bought.

 

https://bit.ly/2VwRbmg

 

Brian.

 

[j8000 0]

I'm with cork as well. It's super cheap, easy to shape and holds paint very well.

[Flicted 0]

I have never been much of a foam guy. Even with dubbing, I only use synthetics if nothing else will do. So I prefer cork and hair. I know... Hooks, thread, tinsel, flash, head cement are all synthetic.