Pencil Poppers

[perchjerker 0]

Here are a few photos of a couple of my Pencil Poppers. The one with the back-sloped face is an excellent diver. Several shots of each are provided so thee you can see them 'in the round'.

 

Cheers,

 

perchjerker

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Nice work! Love the little diver. Those are great when the bass are schooling and hitting on schooling shad. A hard bodied diver is my favorite.

Perch, is the foil that you use the standard household foil? I've seen that method used before and I have a book from Walt Holeman that shows how to do it but I've never got rountuit.

Nice finish on these too, the alcohol mix again? What does that alcohol mix do for you? does it extend the pot life? Does it make it easier to paint on your heads? I've been coating hard bodied bugs and streamer heads with 2-ton epoxy for over 25 years and never really felt the need to change the consistency of the 2-ton mixture except about 5 minutes in to applying top coats where it begins to thicken but then I just mix another batch.

Are those long poppers on 6x long streamer hooks or do you have a regular hook with a hand made wire harness for the eye tie off?

 

Kirk

[MowestFlyfisher 0]

if that is aluminum foil i would like to know how to do that, because that is awesome

[perchjerker 0]

Thanks Kirk.

The answers to your questions in order are:

 

1) NO! Household foil is too thick. Get as well acquainted as you can with the folks at your favorite B-B-Q joint where they serve stuffed backed potatoes, and 'finagle' them out of a few new foil potato wrappers. You used to see a gold colored foil on baked potatoes, but haven't seen it in years. It makes a beautiful gold-bodied popper.

2) Yes. Thinning the epoxy mix makes it flow on faster and easier for me, and it does seem to give a bit longer 'pot-life'.

3) They are on 6X and 8X long shanked streamer hooks. Some are stainless steel that I got from Charlie Cypert years ago. Unfortunately, Charlie is no longer in the busines due to his health.

 

I use Barge Cement to glue the foil to the bodies. Pliobond or Weldwood Contact Cement should work equally as well. Their advantage is that they stay flexible ('soft') after curing, enabling one to do the embossing with a minimum of effort.

 

Keep in mind that they are NOT true pencil poppers unless the bodies are shaped in a pencil sharpener!!

 

Cheers,

 

perchjerker

[kelkay 0]

I like those poppers a lot. I have not done the foil kind yet, but it is on my list to do. I even bought cheap thinner type foil, just for the job, but then I got side tracked. I will get around to it again before too long.

[perchjerker 0]

mowest:

 

You make the balsa body and glue the hook in. You next cut small pieces of a thin aluminum foil ( see my response to Kirk) and glue it to the body, first laying it over the back, and molding it to the body, using a contact cement. The outer edges of the foil should enable you to glue them together under the body and sticking straight up in the air away from the body; creating a 'rib'. Once the glue has set, you cut the 'rib' off flush with the body using scissors, and leaving a nice seamless union of the two sides directly on the bottom of the bug. I also cover the face of the bug with the foil. If you have a cupped face, as I often use, take a piece of wood dowel and round one end over to make a tool for getting the foil pushed down into the cup. Once you have it covered, and the 'rib' trimmed off, you take an Xacto knife and roll the knurled sleeve over the collet end all over the foil to emboss it. I start at midpoint of the back and work my way down the sides and then under the belly, working both sides independently. If you screw up, and it is not too bad, you can go back over it to correct your mistake; provided that you used just sufficient pressure originally to get a neat embossing. Too much pressure can make it difficult to work out.

 

Cheers,

 

perchjerker

[FlyFishin'Jam 0]

I love that 2nd one across, looks dynamite! wikkid flies here, and that shiney/ scale look is awesome.

[Guest]

Nice work! Love the little diver. Those are great when the bass are schooling and hitting on schooling shad. A hard bodied diver is my favorite.

Perch, is the foil that you use the standard household foil? I've seen that method used before and I have a book from Walt Holeman that shows how to do it but I've never got rountuit.

Nice finish on these too, the alcohol mix again? What does that alcohol mix do for you? does it extend the pot life? Does it make it easier to paint on your heads? I've been coating hard bodied bugs and streamer heads with 2-ton epoxy for over 25 years and never really felt the need to change the consistency of the 2-ton mixture except about 5 minutes in to applying top coats where it begins to thicken but then I just mix another batch.

Are those long poppers on 6x long streamer hooks or do you have a regular hook with a hand made wire harness for the eye tie off?

 

Kirk

 

Kirk,

What book by Walt Holeman are you referring to?

 

Dave

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Dave, sorry to have misled you. The book was put out by the Tennessee Valley Flyfishers years ago. I think the late Fred Stevenson was the president then. It was a soft back, stapled together book the club put together from members to make a few bucks one year when they hosted a conclave.

Walt had a chapter in it on making his lipped plugs as well as his foil pencil poppers. I may have scanned it but wouldn't know how to post that for ya'll's viewing pleasure.

 

Kirk

[perchjerker 0]

I have seen that article somewhere, but do not recall where; other than I recall it being in a widely circulated magazine. It had to be at least 20 years ago when I read it; if not farther back in time.

 

Charlie Cypert, a very well known, and now retired, white bass/striper guide on Lake Whitney in Central Texas made them by the thousands and supplied several major fly shops in the state, including Orvis in both Houston and Dallas. They were right up there with Clouser Minnows in the fly boxes of Texas coastal fly fishers. Charlie was a 'one-man' major assembly line for them, and is who showed me how to make them. I regret that I did not take pictures of his ingenious set-up for making them: the epitome of simplicity! I would love to have his 'industrial strength electric pencil sharpener' that he used to shape the bodies.

 

It is in deference to his friendship that I am hesitant to do a SBS on his process ; even though he had to give everything up about 10 years ago for health reasons, and sold everything off.

 

perchjerker

[Stippled Popper 0]

Walt Holman attended my Fly Fishing Club's Conclave as a tier and presenter on more than one occasion.

His foil pencil poppers were very influential in my area. I am unaware of possible influences by Mr. Cypert

or Mr. Holman may have had on each other.

 

Here is a link to a photo intensive post demonstrating what another tier took from that instruction either

directly or filtered through other tiers which some of you may find it of interest.

 

Flyslinger's Pencil Poppers

 

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

...Flyslinger's Pencil Poppers

 

Great link Stippled.

 

[perchjerker 0]

There are a few subtle differences between what is done here and how Charlie did it, as Charlie was mass producing them. If Charlie wanted 2 inch long bodies, he measured the balsa off to be 4 1/8 inches long. He drilled with a 4 inch piece of brass tubing of the desired diameter to the 4 inch depth. This left 1/8 inch undrilled, which enabled him to remove the brass tube, but leave the blank in the block. After he had drilled as many blanks as the block would allow, he then took the block to a bandsaw and cut the bottom 1/8 inch off, releasing his blanks. He next sharpened both ends in his electric pencil sharpener, after which he cut the blank in half at the 15* angle using his bandsaw. Thus, one drilling yielded two bodies. He would lightly touch each body to his bandsaw blade to cut the groove for the hook. His blanks were so smooth that he only rarely had to do any sanding. For painting, he held each one in an old spring loaded clothespin and used model spray paint to paint the backs on dozens at a time. The only hand painting was for the eyes and the typical 'shad' spot. In true 'assembly line' fashion,he would measure of several blocks at a time, including a 1/8 inch mark, and cut these blocks from the 'stick' of balsa. He would then spend the day drilling these blocks, and would the cut the bottoms off of all at one time; etc, until he had a n inventory of bodies ready for hooks stockpiled, and then went from there.

 

Thanks a million for posting this, as I have never seen it before.

 

I do not know if Walt and Charlie knew of one another or not, but their, but they were contemporaries for a period of time.

 

Cheers,

 

perchjerker

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

He would lightly touch each body to his bandsaw blade to cut the groove for the hook.

 

Charlie has balls! Man, I have a little scroll saw and that little blade going up and down gives me the willies when I get to cutting something small!

 

When I make my mylar tubing pencil poppers, I use a the "cigar" shaped Comel styrofoam perch float, it is tapered at each end. I cut it in half making two bodies. While the body is not as long as the hook, when I tie off the mylar tubing at the hook bend and the front of the foam body, the air trapped in the tubing acts as the second half of the body. I'll have to post something on that when I get a chance. It is kind of like the old bass bugs of yore where I cut a groove just back from the face where I tie off the mylar in the front and paint over the thread wraps. After seeing the posts on the old bugs, Perch, I may just have to throw a wad of bucktail on top of my next mylar popper.

 

Kirk

[perchjerker 0]

Charlie had a very delicate touch when it came to putting the bodies up to the bandsaw blade to cut the hook grooves, and he devoted his full attention to what he was doing.

 

I either use my coping saw or a fine-toothed Xacto saw---All Armstrong models!

 

It sure wouldn't hurt anything to put some bucktail on one of them. Might make them the-bug-of-the-year! Would love to see s pic. of one.

 

perchjerker