Kirk Dietrich

Hey Kirk, Those are from after Tony Accardo bought out Peck's. See the address in the packaging? Baton Rouge, LA. Here is one of a few that I got off of ebay last year. Notice the address.

Ron, thanks for the input! Much more accurate that what my guesses have been.

I use silicone legs. Had to many old Peck's and Accardo bugs with legs that got crusty and developed a memory - took a pretty long time though. When silicone came out, I just went to that for my bugs.

Bob, those are still pretty old. My guess is certainly pre-Accordo buy-out. The one on the bottom has a large hook eye and the forged hook bend look like an old hand made Gelic Supreme hook.

I don't know if that patent book was something his son threw out or not. Ditz, they have yaller eyes. As soon as I've fished these and find out what tweaks need to be made, I'll probably do some yellow faced ones and all yellow. Yeah Tide, he was a nice fellow. I think he may have even started before he started a company kind of like most of us; pretty sure he told us he was making bugs in school (college probably but maybe not) and selling them for some pocket money. Did you know about him buying the cork factory in Spain so he wouldn't have a middle man between him and the bark on the cork trees?

Tide, you're right and I don't really know anything about the purchase by Accardo. Sad thing is Accardo died and his son had thrown away a good amount of his stuff to do with the business. At a sporting goods show years ago, Mr Accardo brought this big ole binder, the kind with the screw post on the binding edge. It was full of all sorts of patent submissions and approvals - really great stuff. My friend asked him if he talked to the fly fishing museum about the book - Accardo then asked if we thought they would give him a good price for it...we told him they take donations so I doubt it ever made it to the museum.

Good looking bug Bob. Peck used the double salmon hook, from what I've read, from 1939/40 till they became unavailable once WWII started. Heddon may have still made some on double salmon hooks but I'm not real familiar with that history or even Peck - there is so little written about it. Kirk

Interesting. I wonder about the quality too. I think I remember Lefty saying they used epoxy paste, maybe the liquid wasn't available yet or being thicker made a better slot filler. When I began making poppers in the 1980's, I used PC-7 epoxy putty - came in two film canisters. I recently found some PC-11 Marine epoxy and it works pretty good; got a little nostalgic.

Good points Tide. Do you know when epoxy came onto the market? I think Lefty told me Bill Gallash used epoxy to glue his heads on hooks in the 1950's. Good chance too they thought double hooks meant double the hookups! Kirk

Mike, you are too funny!!! Hell, for years I fished a 7wt rod with straight piece of mono for leader/tippet and even casted bream to redfish bugs with it. Now, occassionally when freshwater fishing and a small bream got hooked, it would come sailing right into the boat with my hookset - that was before strip setting was preached.

Thanks Ditz, The hook size is #4 on the Crow wing and #6 on the hair wing - did'nt measure the overall size but they were made from tapered cork bottle stoppers that I wouldn't hesitate to cast on a 7wt and the #6 maybe even a 5 or 6wt. The popper makers back in the early 40's went to the single hook after WWII started and they couldn't acquire the double hooks. I believe in the early days, some guys would solder a piece of tin to the top of the single shank hooks to help prevent head from twisting; not sure when the kink shank was introduced to the industry.

Hatchet, not sure. Only thing I can figure is the double hook is wider and may have made the head more secure on the hook as he made these prior to kink shank hooks. I'm looking forward to see how the hooking is, may or may not be better than single hook. Kirk

Thanks Mike. Yeah Shoe, I think that one might fish better too. If this rain ever stops, I hope to fish them and find out.

Wish these were original Peck's but they're just my version of Peck's original poppers on double salmon hooks that he made before imports to US were stopped or to hard to come by from Europe where he got his hooks.

Thanks Piker. Hard to beat the original though.

Can't find pic of Squirrely that Fisherboy is referring to but this is a modified one with rabbit dubbing body; could use squirrel body dubbing for an all squirrel fly.

I fillet the crappie but scale the bluegill usually. Scale them, cut the head off and remove inards. Then slice into the flesh down to the bone from the dorsal to the bottom. Usually two slices a little distance appart on each side of the fish. That will give you three sections of meat that the breading will get down into the slice. After deep fried, the sections of meat come right off with a fork. No bones although like with all fish, you want to be attentive around the stomach as those bones will come off with the flesh. To help the fins fry up nice and crispy, make sure after the egg wash that you push each fin/tail into the breading mix while fanning it out with the other hand.

Mike, funny! Ditz must have only seen me in the presence of women. I use them mostly in saltwater, but as someone mentioned, the Johnson's Silver Minnow was originated for Bass and a pork trailer was very popular, caught a number of bass on them. I've used down to a size #6 in freshwater and have caught panfish and small bass on them, never fished the larger ones in the fresh. Kirk

Y'all are talking about filters eh? I'm pretty sure the hand-rolled filterless butts I discard don't last the day, just natural ingredients being recycled into the ground - paper and tobacco. Kirk

Hahahaha BCT, I love the Grey Area visual!

Good answers Silver and Ty. I fish warm and saltwater and with these categories, I've got to say I fish most patterns as searchers and a number of the searchers are also attractor patterns, unless I'm sight casting to redfish. Most warmwater is done by blind casting so covering a lot of water is important to me even if I'm throwing to cover. But just to throw a monkey wrench into things, I usually fish baitfish type flies either poppers, divers and streamers including wooly buggars and being tied to look like baitfish, they would be imitative but by the nature of injured baitfish that draw attention they usually move kind of erratic with bursts of livelyness, which allows a quicker retrieve allowing to search more water. If that makes sense. Then sometimes, I do to those same shaped/style flies painted in Fire Tiger, which I've got to believe would be an attractor... Damn, I'm confusing myself! Glad I don't have to take a test on this. Kirk

Silver Creek, What would a Wooly Buggar be considered? Kirk

I am curious about the benefits too; not that a fly tying method has to have benefits. As long as it is a method one is comfortable with, then I say knock oneself out. Kirk

So, a picture of two of a few of your flies would be a nice addition to the post. No SBS, just a pic to see what you're tying...Thanks. DISREGARD, I just saw you posted as a "Pattern". Kirk

I've got to second Utyer too. The hard foam floats are great. You can even find different shapes in lure supply catalogs that are used for walleye fishing where they use small hard foam near their bait between the sinker and hook to keep the bait suspended off the bottom. Can't think of the company off hand but there are a variety of sizes and shapes. For ease of acquisition, the Comal floats are ideal. The list of materials that can be used to make poppers is pretty extensive. Kirk These are size #6 poppers made with Comal hard foam floats painted with acrylic and topcoated with 30 minute cure epoxy. These are size #6 & #8 poppers made from a block of foam I made by gluing a number of 2mm sheets of foam together.