[smokinprice]

Howdy Folks,

I painted another 30 or so poppers. I have finished about 20 or them. I have five tied up in each color combo. I tried Stipple's dot technique. Mine are done with a small paint brush. As I tried it, I got better as the flies progressed. I started out with a few dots on the early patterns I did and finished up with the frog one which I think is the best. Let me know how you all like the colors and such. Thanks for looking.

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[smallieFanatic]

Sick man totally sick. They will work excellently methinks! My fav is the one on the far right.

[smokinprice]

Thanks man. Yeah that Frog pattern maybe my favorite as well.

[letumgo]

Fantastic poppers! As I looked at each of the flies, I like the flies with more dots better. The frog pattern is my favorite of the lot, but I would gladly fish any one of them.

[smokinprice]

Thanks Ray

[the saltydog]

I just got in almost everything needed to tie up some poppers, I need to hit the craft store and get some paint brushes. I also like the dots, have you tried using a cut off tooth pick or finishing nail? I was going to try that based on how you make eyes on thundercreek flies.

[Pelhament]

Man you guys are killing me!!! Everyone is posting great patterns and I still haven't relocated my tying room since it was hijacked by my newborn son... Everything is in storage and it is driving me nuts. MUST TIE FLY!

Saltdog - They sell acrylic paint pens at Walmart in a wide variety of colors. They are great for painting dots on poppers. The size of the dot is determined by the pressure you put on the pen.

[Stippled Popper]

This summer I made 14 of these eye and stippling tool kit sets for my half of the Popper Clinic my fly fishing club presented. The other half of the clinic covered making balsa pencil poppers which another member was responsible for.



The diameters of the brass rods are 1/4", 3/16", 5/32", 1/8", and 3/32. The 1/4" will likely not be used much if at all.

The rods are from the Architecture Department of the local university book store. I made 14 in each diameter from one
3' rod. At about 2.25 inches in length, a handle for these isn't really needed since they are only going to be used to make
eyes. Kind of pricey, but it wouldn't be so much if spread around with a bunch of other tiers.

The handles on the others are balsa which I punched out and painted in a tan color for consistency and applied a coat of
two-ton epoxy as a clear coat after securing the needles in place with super glue.

The needles are Prym Sewing
1.) Yarn Darners which come seven to a pack in sizes 14/18 *
2.) Tapestry Needles which come in a six pack in sizes 18/22 *
3.) 20 Sharps / Long in Size 7 *

I chose 7 needles from these packs which gave me a range of diameters suitable for what I believe most people might
need. But my personal set has some in-between sizes.

Except for the two smallest diameters which were ground from the points of the sharps, I cut the rest of the needles
below the eyes of the needles where the shape becomes round.

* Don't know whether the size is from smaller to larger or the other way around. Each pack is a $ or less. There is only
one of the largest Yarn Darner in a pack.

[smokinprice]

Thanks guys. Something to think about with poppers is preparing the body. When I work with a popper body, regardless of whether it is cork or foam, I always give it three coats of all purpose sealer to prep it. Then, for me, each color gets at least three coats of paint. Last, I give it a minimum of three coats of varnish sealer. In the early days, I found that if I didnt do this, the fish would destory the popper, especially the cork. Just some thoughts.

[FishyboY]

great ties! doing good with the stippling!

[smokinprice]

Thanks man

[BigDaddyHub]

Jeff,

Great looking flies, man. You have come a long way in just a few months. I know you're fishing very small streams where an average fish is 10 or 12 inches and you're tying to suit those fish. Tying smaller flies means less space to work with tails and legs. I was going to encourage you to try and keep the hackling closer to the the body to provide a more tapered body profile, but after looking at them again, I think the hackling adds to the "bigness" of a smaller fly. I'm just speaking, I guess, from my own prefernces for poppers and like to use a webby hackle, for more often than not, to hide thread wraps and provide a little "even-flow" from the body to the tail. But , hey, I'm a better badge than I am a tier. I have many poppers, especially baitfish patterns that have no hackle at all. But I ramble. Again, you've come a long way in a few months, Jeff! Now, all you need is for that 4 ft of snow to melt and get out on the water!

[j.sarchet]

what is the bodie made of???

[smokinprice]

The body is the perfect popper body made by Waspi in sizes 8 and 10.

[smokinprice]

I guess I should have answered/commented in order. BDH thanks for the kind words and for taking a look at the flies. I usually only use or tie poppers in 8, 10 or 12 for around here. Anything bigger than an 8 is simply too big for the smallies on what would be my home water.