Kirk Dietrich

I've caught bream, bass, catfish and carp on this simple fly that I came up with in the early 1980's and I'm still using it and catch fish on it. Squirrel tail hair and bead chain eyes - black thread and 3906b Mustad hook, size 10. But I think Utyer has me beat with what looks like an all black thread on hook fly. Kirk

I like the colors and the shape. I'd say to go sparser; there may be enough hair on those two guys to make a total of four or five streamers. That kinky fiber is probably the closest to bucktail out of all the synthetics I've used. It works great when added in on top of or below bucktail too. Kirk

I quit when my fourth child was born and the price of a carton went up from $13 to something like $40 after the lawsuit. I made it for six years without a smoke. Started back about eight years ago. Hope your path follows Norm's closer than mine.

Ben, those look great and I like the name! Nice job! Kirk

Piker, it was grown over pretty good so I think it may have happened when it was a baby. They don't have any really big predator fish in that shallow canal. Phish, I was thinking that when I grabbed it from the shed and especially when I went to land that fish. Don't think it would do much good with the larger carp that are in there. Thanks Jeff, I like the orange on the tail, it helps me track where the fly is and I think it helps the fish find it. I do want to make some in black though for when they shy away from the orange. Kirk

Perchjerker, whom I haven't seen post in a while told me that when he does it, he doesn't drill all the way through the block so that he can pull the tube out of the block or rather doesn't have to push/pull the dowel out of the tube. After he drills the cylinders in the block to within a quarter inch or so from the bottom, he lays the block on its side and cuts the bottom off where the tube stopped. He then dumps out his dowels. He said, sometimes he glues the bottom back on and uses the block with holes for a tying tool holder. Kirk

Thanks Riffle, Luke used this Canon camera he has to take the video. Its pretty short and doesn't have footage of a take or the fish in the shallows, it was pretty muddy but I like that it shows where I'm fishing and the cars you can hear running by. We did get a few wise cracks from passersby but I'm getting used to it after three years of fishing this environment. Kirk

I took a virgin carp fishing friend out today to give him a shot. He fished for a good hour with me guiding him at his side; Luke had about 20 - 30 shots but only two takes that he missed the hookset on. When I suggested I change his fly, he suggested I give it a shot, on my second fish, I lucked out and got a take and the hookset stuck. Here is a link to Luke's blog where he posted the two minute video. http://nolafly.com/urban-fly-fishing-for-carp/ Kirk

Wayne, WAPSI sells preformed hard foam bodies. You're not going to find pre-formed balsa though but they are easy enough to make yourself. For WAPSI bodies/hooks, they come as a kit, just Google up WAPSI Perfect Poppers. Even though they come with hooks, you can use what ever one you like that you have. Kirk

Kevin, Riffle is right. Man, that stuff floats a deer hair bug like cork! I think they just came out with a tube size. When I got mine years ago, it was in plastic jar maybe 12 - 16 oz. and cost about ten bucks but I still have it. I think there are probably flyshops that buy that stuff and re-package and sell it as floatant. Kirk

It looks good, you'll have to let us know how it works. I imagine it will sink unless you gink up the head with Albolene. When it sinks, if it isn't treated to float that is, I'm not sure the collar would be stiff enough to make it dive deeper. However, the collar should sway back into the tail nicely for a great bullet head streamer. However, trimming the congo into a head shape is a good method of making a synthetic wool head streamer. I used to make bullet head wool head streamers for redfish. I'd treat it with Albolene and it would float and when stripped gurgle and bubble nicely and when pulled hard and it went below the surface, the gink wasn't buoyant enough to make it pop back to the top so you could then work it as a nice sub-surface waking streamer just below the surface. Kirk

The first two pics are the best I've ever seen of a sparsely tied fly, great glass minnow imitation! The others are great looking too. Kirk

Okay, so they come in many different sizes but the hobby shops by my house don't carry this kind of variety. I just never saw the benefit in buying pipe cleaners for flies when chenille is pretty cheap and comes in some really good colors dyed for the fly tier including barred and variegated The antron chenille is especially nice, its almost all I use now. Kirk

That's a great idea with the nut driver and the JB weld, I've heard some good stuff about it. That youtube video on making dowels is okay for a volume of dowels but I wouldn't set all of that up for just one dowel. Thanks for the compliment on the painting, yours look really good especially for using Testor's paints. I made that sanding block by drilling a hole in a scrap piece of 2x4 and then ripping it on my table saw. I later got a big groove bit for my router when I had to make twenty of those blocks for a class I was scheduled to teach, went a lot quicker. Now, I look forward to seeing some pictures of fish with your poppers in their mouth! Kirk

Hey Salty, not sure how you sand but I found that making a channel in a block of wood works real well for sanding the taper part of the bug. See below. Kirk

Salty, I like your brass tool too. I just use up to 1/2" tubing and just chucked it in the drill and kept turning the chuck and it squeezed the end of the tubing down; works good but I like the way you have the nut driver glued into the end. I think its glue, looks like epoxy putty? I don't think I've tried the hand sharpener yet. I have an old Bostich hand crank sharpener with different sized guide holes and believe me, it chews it up much worse than that hand sharpener. I have a few of those shop pencil hand sharpeners around, may have to give them a try. If you really have time on your hands, go check out my youtube channel and look for the video I did on making dowels from balsa sticks, I got the idea from an archery site where they make arrows out of hardwood sticks. I think if I use my router to turn down the corners, it would go through the chisel jig dowel maker better. I was teaching a class and needed a bunch of balsa dowels which is why I went that route. For doing a handful of dowels for a batch of poppers, the brass tube is the best way to go. Thanks for posting, Kirk

Bryan, thanks for sharing. I use the brass tubes also although I've used other methods as well. I haven't had much luck with a pencil sharpener, the one I have tends to chomp the wood so I just chuck a glover's needle in my dremel and impale a piece of dowel and spin it on sandpaper to taper it. I've got a batch of balsa minnows working right now at the house, it does take a little work but like fishing, I think its time spent that won't be taken off your life. Kirk

That's a good idea Ben. Piker, depending on what kind of rattle it is. Keep in mind that the bbs in rattles are incapsulated in an air tight chamber. A plastic rattle will not flip a fly just on its own, not sure about a glass one but the glass may counteract the buoyancy of the air chamber and indeed flip the fly. It also depends on the size of the rattle in relationship to the hook and how the materials are tied on; a large hook isn't that easy to get to flip. When I use plastic rattle on bend back flies, I have to put an extra bb in the mylar tubing belly where the rattle goes in order to create some balast for the fly to ride properly other wise, the air in the plastic rattle chamber makes the fly roll when stripped quickly. You can add a rattle to the rear of the hook by tying off the end of a piece of mylar tubing or the mono flexo tubing, insert rattle and lash that to the hook where the tubing with rattle are hanging off the back. Just threw that out there for you to try while you're waiting for those straps to come in. I used to make a magnum Rattle Rouser with the tubing/rattle hanging off the back and another one in the belly like normal. Kirk

Devin, those look good enough to put in a pie!

Salty, those look great! What did you shape the bodies with and what kind of clear coat did you use over the paint? I like the shallow cup in the faces, I always strive for that but wound up making it deeper; those should be easy to pick up but still pop nicely. I like the dubbing skirt on the chart. bug a lot. Kirk

Interesting point AGN, you're right. Most spoon flies are more wind resistant than they are heavy and wouldn't go very far even with ultra light tackle. That being said, I rarely fish them as I'm usually testing other flies. If I need fish to eat and they aren't hitting other offerings, I'll put a spoon on. It is a great fly for beginning redfish sightcasters as there is a lot of leeway for error and you don't have to do much to really read the fish and feed them a spoon; just cast it near them and you stand a good chance of getting an eat. Kirk

Luvin, those bugs look good! That method of putting one bunch of legs straight through is much faster than the method I use of tying them in the skirt. When I used to put them through the head, I made three holes, one on each side angling from front to opposite back and one straight across - now, that is time consuming! In that method, the legs in skirt is faster. Kirk This is how I used to put them through heads and abandoned for the in the skirt method.

Or, you could come down to New Orleans and get plastic fly eys of all sizes and colors for a lifetime. Kirk

Those are buggy looking. I think "chuck them out there" is a fair description of what you'll likely be doing. I was doing that this morning, tossing a 3/0 balsa bug with my 5wt., I switched over to a #4 after a while. Kirk

Silver, I've done those types too especially in smaller sizes where it is more difficult to do the mylar one. I usually put one or two pieces of wire perpendicular across the hook shank as well to help strengthen it and shape it. As I can see the lead through the resin I would say that is way to much lead for shallow grassy flats I use six or seven wraps of .015 lead around the shank on the forward half of the shank and that is plenty enough lead for the two feet and less of water that our redfish are usually found; its enough to keep it down but light enough for a nice seductive slow flutter. For deeper water, I'd put more lead but still not as much as shown unless fishing really deep water. Just my 2 cents. Kirk