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TheCream

Large poppers for sharks?

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So once again, this year on my vacation to the NC coast, my primary goal is a shark on the fly. I have plenty of plus-sized streamers ready, and was wondering if it would be worthwhile to make a few big poppers? I make most of my own from either basswood or balsa. Obviously if they do get hit they will suffer some damage, but I don't care about that. Hooking up is the important thing! I am probably going to do them tube-style if I do make them, that way maybe the body will be spared some damage.

 

Worth the time to crank out or not?

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Absolutely! definitely tube style use a split tube and body, like in a popping cork and you can add them on the run.

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Sure it's worth the time! Simple & big should do it if they'll hit it at all! Just having one hit a popper would be worth the time to me! That would be very cool to see!

 

Are you chumming them in close first?

 

What colors will you be trying? :)

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Sure it's worth the time! Simple & big should do it if they'll hit it at all! Just having one hit a popper would be worth the time to me! That would be very cool to see!

 

Are you chumming them in close first?

 

What colors will you be trying? :)

 

I was planning on trying to chum them close. As for colors, all I weas planning on where some basic color patterns like red/white, all white, and definitely orange. Everywhere I read, orange is a killer shark color.

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That's what I've read too, but that's mostly subsurface flies. Don't know about surface flies. I would guess if you get one close enough & the popper makes enough noise, the color probably won't matter a lot! :lol:

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What subsurface flies are you using? I would love to try to get a shark too this summer on the NC coast at wrightsville beach/Atlantic beach.

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Here's my main shark pattern. We do it in red/white and the color shown (you want it the exact same color as your brand new life preserver.... with a touch of red at the nose). It's tied up with Schlappen in 4/0, overall it's at least six inches, seven is better.

 

It's called the Bloody Rooster (and if desired you can add a sailfish sized popping head - but mostly we fish it just as is...). The only trick to remember is that #1- the shark has to be coming towards you and #2- you try to keep the fly right next to one eye or the other (not in front of the animal at all...).

 

Tight Lines

Bob LeMay

post-30940-0-36884900-1337859262_thumb.jpg

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Here's my main shark pattern. We do it in red/white and the color shown (you want it the exact same color as your brand new life preserver.... with a touch of red at the nose). It's tied up with Schlappen in 4/0, overall it's at least six inches, seven is better.

 

It's called the Bloody Rooster (and if desired you can add a sailfish sized popping head - but mostly we fish it just as is...). The only trick to remember is that #1- the shark has to be coming towards you and #2- you try to keep the fly right next to one eye or the other (not in front of the animal at all...).

 

Tight Lines

Bob LeMay

 

Thanks for the info, Bob! Most of the subsurface flies I have tied are essentially supersized Murdich Minnows in 6/0 and lots of bulky Deceiver-ish streamers. Total fly length on most of the ones I have made are about 5-6" but bulky (should push some water) and up to 8" total length.

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Here's my main shark pattern. We do it in red/white and the color shown (you want it the exact same color as your brand new life preserver.... with a touch of red at the nose). It's tied up with Schlappen in 4/0, overall it's at least six inches, seven is better.

 

It's called the Bloody Rooster (and if desired you can add a sailfish sized popping head - but mostly we fish it just as is...). The only trick to remember is that #1- the shark has to be coming towards you and #2- you try to keep the fly right next to one eye or the other (not in front of the animal at all...).

 

Tight Lines

Bob LeMay

 

Bob, do sharks turn when they hit, or do they usually just keep coming? I'm thinking of tying a few shark flies and I'm wondering if circles would be the way to go. It would sure make hook removal easier.

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according to the shows i watch on discovery they turn and swing there heads side to side to help there teeth get that ripping action i dont know if they do that on smaller bait fish though since they are literally snack sized

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Hi Peter, sorry it's taken a while to come back to this site (I was out of town...). First things first - I avoid circle hooks for sharks if at all possible, every time.... My anglers catch and release large numbers of sharks and I can usually successfully release even the biggest ones and get the hook back every time - but not if a circle hook is in play. Circles take two distinct motions (you actually turn one in a circle to remove it and that's just not on the cards with an 18" hook remover (I prefer the Arc De-Hooker, if anyone gets a chance to watch any Madfin shark tournament television shows you'll see exactly what I'm talking about). I can safely handle big sharks up to 10 feet long and larger by myself, remove the hook, and never take one out of the water (and since we never tail-rope or otherwise aggravate the animal they're pretty docile). To successfully use circles and remove them from a shark's mouth would require using a pair of pliers and that just puts your hand entirely too close.... Whenever one of our tarpon baits gets shark-bit (and I'm almost always set up with 6/0 to 8/0 circle hooks when we live bait tarpon) the shark gets to keep the hook (no matter how much it cost me).

 

Now for info on the strike when using a fly... You'll have to see this to believe it, but here goes. To be successful with flies working sharks that have been chummed or teased up... we only present the fly to animals that are coming almost right at us. I have my angler place the fly right next to the eye of the fish instead of in front of them (where they just can't see it...). You strip the fly at the same pace the shark is swimming and try to keep the fly as close to the shark's eye as possible. The take is so subtle that you have to watch very closely for it. One moment the fly is right there, the next it's gone, and the shark hardly moves its head at all. We just keep stripping with longer strips until things come tight since the animal won't spit very quickly. I want my angler pointing the fly rod right at the nose of the fish the entire time (and if possible with the tip of the rod actually in the water -just barely).

My favorite shark setup is a 12wt rod with an old 13wt floating line... I'd avoid using any brand new expensive lines since very bad things are likely to happen to a fly line with any big shark... Hope this helps.

 

Tight lines

Bob LeMay

(954) 435-5666

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Many thanks Bob, that's really good information. I've been thinking of building an extra bare-bones 12wt and keeping it rigged for just that purpose. And kudos for keeping the fish in the water. One of my pet peeves is anglers who just can't live without hauling a fragile fish out of the water and posing for a "grip 'n' grin" shot. I see that all the time with false albacore, and it usually results in a dead tuna.

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We have chased big spinner sharks off the end of Ragged Island (Bahamas) and hooking up with one of them is a big deal. We would set anchor, drop a chum basket over the side, and wait 15 minutes. A variety of sharks would come in and getting the fly to a Spinner, specifically, could be a challenge. We targeted the Spinner because of the acrobatic show they would put on once hooked.

Big noisy poppers were productive as we would strive to keep any "edible" chum out of the water. The sharks would get pretty competitive about hitting anything that might represent something to eat. This included Lemons, Spinners, Black Tip, Sand and Bull sharks along with a few others I could not readily identify.

The flies pictured I built using Rainey's bill fish heads and the biggest popping head Puglisi had to offer.

post-43276-0-46115100-1338217143_thumb.jpg

post-43276-0-16281300-1338217151_thumb.jpg

post-43276-0-29398900-1338217162_thumb.jpg

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Completed yesterday, 2 orange and 2 white/chartreuse large balsa tube poppers. I chose balsa knowing obviously if they take a direct hit they likely won't survive, even after a thick epoxy coating and HaH on top of that. I wanted light weight and castability, and I am hoping the tube style will spare some wear if they get attacked. The collar is Baitfish Emulator, the hook is a short shank 3/0 tarpon hook which I think is big enough. The hook portion is just bucktail, flash, and some wrapped hackle.

 

Hand turned balsa body:

 

DSC_0006-1.jpg

 

Epoxy curing:

 

DSC_0009-1.jpg

 

Completed:

 

DSC_0013-2.jpg

 

DSC_0018.jpg

 

DSC_0016.jpg

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