Popper question

[Horseshoes 0]

I see now that alot of the poppers being made have dots on the heads. Are these for the fish or the fisher?

[bluegill576 0]

I say some of both. I like to make my flies what I consider Fishable artwork because fly tying is afterall artwork, but this doesn't mean that they all have to be really fancy, but back to the poppers I think the different colors ofthe dots and the base do help because most things in nature aren't a solid color. But housing have to haindpaint them if you don't want to, you can use an airbrush or even a toothbrush (put some paint on it and point it at te popper and run your finger over the base and then the paint flies onto the popper in a spelled pattern) to make dots. But instill prefer making the dots myself. It looks better to te fisherman works well and is fun to make.

[Stippled Popper 0]

A member of my fly fishing club has a Wapsi Hard Foam popper which consists of a hook glued in the head slot, a marabou tail and a bit of hackle palmer. There is no paint. The popper works. A participant on another fly fishing site where I post has a cork bodied popper using the same technique . . . no paint! Strictly speaking I believe like some of the fancy Salmon flies and fancy work some have on their fly rods it is mostly about the tier, the fisher, and about craftsmanship.

 

I tie micro poppers such as this one to have a distinctive looking fly that

can be used to fish and doesn't take too long to complete.

 

 

 

Something like the next one can take as much as four hours to tie and is

intended to go in a shadow box:

 

[perchjerker 0]

Just to comment on to paint or not, and to add to stippled poppers comments, a plain old natural deer hair bug, with perhaps a 'white' face to aid in seeing it, will catch bass, or perch, all day long. There is absolutely no need for, or possibly even advantage to, the multicolored deer hair bug; I venture that all of the various colored bugs were tied simply to satisfy the tiers artistic inclination; or, to catch fishermen rather than fish.

[flytire 0]

Are these for the fish or the fisher?

 

yes & yes

[salty fly 0]

I tie these for my self.To shape each one out of a block of wood and then hand painting them, is very rewarding for me.Haveing a big bass slam it is worth the work. I tie to catch fish, but I tie to make cool stuff and have fun.

[Phish 0]

They only just for looks as most of the time they smash a popper by sound.

[tidewaterfly 0]

Many years ago, while fishing with a group on the Potomac River, a friend, Norm Bartlett, gave me a cork slider he had made. I caught a ton of Smallmouths & various panfish on that bug that day. It was nothing more than a cork popper body, hot glued onto a #2 Mustad kink shank popper hook, with a small clump of natural tan deertail hair hot glued into a small hole drilled into the back of that body. No paint, nothing fancy!

 

All of Norm's flies are constructed in the same simple manner, and Norm is one heck of a fly angler! (Boyd Pfeiffer did a magazine article many years ago about Capt. Norm's "Trash Bag" flies he used to catch Striped Bass. May have been in Fly Tyer, but I'm not sure about it!)

 

I like to paint poppers, but rarely add anything such as spots, dots or other embellishments, and I've caught plenty of fish on them too.

 

I think that the painting is primarily for our enjoyment. There may be times that a certain color may get more notice than another, but it's likely that most of the time, the colors, spots, dots or anything else makes no difference to the fish what so ever!

 

Although, I really do enjoy seeing what the many talented bug makers post on here, with or without the dots!

[Horseshoes 0]

Wow. Thanks for answering so promptly. I am just starting and primarily am tying them for fishing. Salt and fresh water. Small and big. I want to have a mixture. Just don't have too much on them in my books. I found myself wishing I had a few in a place where there was marsh grass. What imitation is most common in fresh water, frogs?

[Jolly Red 0]

For many years after poppers were invented, they were painted plain yellow, so they were easy to see. They caught lots of fish. What were they trying to imitate? Dunno. Still don't know what the fancy paint jobs are intended to imitate, but they still catch lots of fish. Like everyone else, I paint them fancy because I like to.

[TheCream 0]

I don't believe it is completely necessary, I just enjoy doing it! I do think that basic color might make a difference on a given day, meaning generally light or dark colors. I personally get enjoyment out of painting them, and I think it's because I am a perfectionist when it comes to things like this. I am rarely 100% happy with my paint jobs, and I enjoy trying to come up with different color combos for trial use to see if there is any difference.

 

 

 

 

I could go out with unpainted or solid-color scheme paint and catch fish, but for me it wouldn't be as enjoyable!

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Horse, I think Salty, Tidewater and Cream brought up the third option that you omitted in your original post: The Tier/yourself... The fish, fisherman, or yourself the tier.

As many have said, fish will hit a plain cork bug or plain single colored one time after time, sometimes a fish will not hit a colored bug because of the color but most often it is the action imparted barring the fact that they will usually prefer either a light shade or dark shade. Cork being tan and neutral in color usually covers both bases and is usually quite effective.

I paint my bugs like the three above said. I really enjoy it. Also, I sell some of them, so, yes, to appeal to the fisherman.

I think a similar question/statement regarding fly tying in general is "pretty flies don't catch more fish". While true, the the hobby of fly tying were just about catching fish, we'd all just wrap a hackle around the front of the hook and impale a live minnow, worm or shrimp on the remaining bare hook.

 

Kirk

[RickZieger 0]

I make my popper sout of foam. Solid colors have wsorked as well or better than multiple colors.

Playing around with stuff, a tail and legs seem to be the most impoortant thing on poppers.

 

 

Rick

[Phish 0]

I will put it this way,if you got plenty of time to be creative then do it and have fun but if not then thats fine to. Both way will get fish no doubt. I like the creative part more than anything.

[tidewaterfly 0]

"pretty flies don't catch more fish"

 

No they don't, but they do sell better when they're pretty!

 

When I was tying commercially, I once took a batch of saltwater poppers to a local shop I supplied, all of which were plain colored. Basic white, yellow, chartreuse & black, and primarily intended for Stripers or Bluefish. All had painted eyes too! The shop owner told me to paint the faces red on the next batch, because they sell better that way!

 

Next time you take a look at commercial poppers, whether they're intended for bass, saltwater or panfish, or even the big plastic ones for spin or baitcasting, take a look at the face & see how many are painted red!

 

I know the fish don't care, but now I paint just about all of mine with a red face!

 

Cream, those are awesome looking!