Philly 0 Report post Posted April 24, 2019 A couple weeks ago my salt water club had a tying class on poppers with gill slits. Not a new idea but he expanded on it a little bit. He supplied some pre-made bodies for the class and we worked on those. He gave us some pre-formed bodies to take home with us and I brought some "templates" from him. Reason being the poppers we were doing were for salt water and I wanted to downsize them to bass and pan fish size. This is what I came up with. Something to throw with my 6 wgt. View from the back showing the "gills" This one is pan fish size. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikechell 0 Report post Posted April 24, 2019 I like putting gill representations on my streamers, poppers, etc. I haven't tied very many crease flies, but I did gill slits on the ones I fished. I put them a lot closer to the eye, though. Yours appear more "mid-body" than actual gill location. Actually, I think it's just the bit of red that's the draw. The fish don't care if it's gills or blood ... it's a signal to take advantage of. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flicted 0 Report post Posted April 24, 2019 Agree. Whether it's a red band on my "Red Neck Crappie Jigs", a red or orange throat on a streamer, red is a good accent. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Philly 0 Report post Posted April 24, 2019 I was looking at that, Mike. I first met him at a "Heroes on the Water" fly fishing and fly tying workshop my salt water club did back in March. He gave out samples of some of his flies. I picked a popper and a diver. I think what it is that when I was downsizing the pattern I didn't reduce the head portion enough in relation to the rest of the body, that's why the slits are so far back. I haven't fished them yet. I'm curious to see what the action will be with the water flowing through the "gills". Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites