dairydave

[niveker 0]

The cool looking foam creations in this thread reminded me that I should probably tie up some type of foam flies for my nephew, who just got his first fly rod a few weeks ago.  And Denduke's flies here

On 8/31/2020 at 7:38 PM, denduke said:

 

 

reminded me of some other foam disk flies I've seen, variously referred to as 'fun foam flies', 'sneaky duck/duckling', 'disk head poppers'  Trying to keep them small on the small side so he'll be able to hook the smaller sunfish.  My progression tonight, from left to right.  Started to morph into a more of a slider and less of a popper.  I think I'll try to reverse the direction of the disks next time in order to catch more water.   

[dairydave 0]

i am from uniontown pa... around 45 minutes south of pittsburgh. i am the operations manager for United Dairy here in Uniontown. 20 years for me...  we have 3 locations that bottle milk . our home office/plant is in Martins Ferry, Ohio. Another plant in charleston, WV. and here in uniontown we do all the bottling. we have branch locations in fairmont WV, beckely WV, Lancaster ohio, portsmouth, salem and galax va. We ship milk to 6 states. WV, Ohio, Pa, New york, maryland, Virginia... we even go up in to Maine with our ice cream. In the fall we Bottle Egg Nog for Costco and deliver it to 2 warehouse on the east coast. They distribute all along the coast from maine all the way down to Florida 

 

[skeet3t 0]

Impressive resume. Brings back a lot of memories. Thanks for sharing. In addition to the farms, we also had great hunting and fishing.

[fishinguy 0]

2 hours ago, dairydave said:

i am from uniontown pa... around 45 minutes south of pittsburgh. i am the operations manager for United Dairy here in Uniontown. 20 years for me...  we have 3 locations that bottle milk . our home office/plant is in Martins Ferry, Ohio. Another plant in charleston, WV. and here in uniontown we do all the bottling. we have branch locations in fairmont WV, beckely WV, Lancaster ohio, portsmouth, salem and galax va. We ship milk to 6 states. WV, Ohio, Pa, New york, maryland, Virginia... we even go up in to Maine with our ice cream. In the fall we Bottle Egg Nog for Costco and deliver it to 2 warehouse on the east coast. They distribute all along the coast from maine all the way down to Florida 

 

Hello from hempfield twp, sw PA. You fishing the yough for your smallies? I've got a set of those harbor freight foam cutters myself. They're great.

[dairydave 0]

yeah fishing the yough anywhere from layton down to west newton... but i really love going up the allegheny and fish in franklin, oil city, tionesta or west hickory... the yough is either hit or miss one day will crush them then the next maybe only 1 fish... the allegheny is almost guarantee a lot of fish and twice the size. 

[dairydave 0]

my foam block in grizzly came yesterday. i used the cutters from harbor freight and it worked ok but i think the set for a drill would make quick work for popper bodies. one post showed a brass shell so i was looking thru some of my old ammo leftover from my hunting days and i found some weatherby .257 casings. they look to be about the right size for cutting foam. i didn't get a chance to make a cutter yet i will later this evening. 

[fshng2 0]

Shaped a pencil popper and slanted faced mini from yesterday's blanks.

Hook Size: 8 ( 423R 3XL) & 10 (CK52S)

 

[Philly 0]

dairydave, I'm a dry fly snob also.  Much rather fish top water flies than drift nymphs or strip streamers.   Generally, I don't punch my popper bodies from foam sheets or blocks.  I either use craft foam sheets or just buy the various types of soft foam popper bodies though I don't particularly care for the double barreled poppers.  

Here's some of the poppers I make out of foam sheets. 

First up is the "fun foam" popper.  It's the first popper pattern I learned to tie.  It's a foam circle punched out of a sheet of foam.  I'll coat it with some UV resin to stiffen it a bit.  It does push a lot of water.  I've seen it tied down to size 10, but it's easier to tie on size 8 hooks on up.  Side and front view

This is a modification of a popper I learned from Harry Steeves.  I've never seen the original in any of his books on tying with foam, so I don't know the name, if he ever gave it one.  This one uses a heart shaped piece of foam for the popper head.  I brought punches for them at a craft store, or you can wait till Valentines Day and you can pick up bags of them.  Again a side and front view

This one I learned in a class in the spring of 2019.  Of course, I've forgotten the guy's name and what he called it.  It's sort of a variation on a crease fly, another popper made out from craft foam sheets.   Side view and front view

 

[fshng2 0]

My wife gave me one of her Dritz cutting mats to use under the foam when using the cutters....worked much better than previous set-up.

Nice poppers Philly!

[Guest]

Here’s Feb. post DairyDave prolly hasn’t seen.  Ordered the pattern/bodies so last pics are made from that   Philly gots lots of foam innovations. Sorry lotta pics are missing. 

 

[dairydave 0]

[dairydave 0]

so last night i tried to make poppers using the set of punches from harbor freight. it wasn't easy really have to use some force to get thru. someone in the thread i saw using a .357 casing so i decided to try that route and from my hunting days i had .257 weatherby casings. they go thru that foam with no effort... really easy. look at how the casing shaped to the jaw of the drill when i tightened it down. that was a happy mistake 

i just used a hack saw blade to slice off a section of the foam. my friend was over last night hes a carpenter and has a band saw and table saw. hes going to cut this block in to slices for me then i can start punching out popper bodies. 

 

 

[niveker 0]

Nice, can't wait to see the finished popper.  

You can also use a stiff serrated knife to cut foam.  Or an adjustable box cutter along a metal straight edge, incrementally increasing the blade depth.   

[dairydave 0]

15 hours ago, denduke said:

Here’s Feb. post DairyDave prolly hasn’t seen.  Ordered the pattern/bodies so last pics are made from that   Philly gots lots of foam innovations. Sorry lotta pics are missing. 

 

these are awesome... that paintwork is neat. 

[Guest]

Not paint....black, pearl, etc glitter dust and SallyHansenHardAsNails or UV.  Get all colors in lil cellophane pack sets at WallyWorld...   paint areas with the polish and sprinkle that color on and so on....you loose some on table and recoup some too.      Kinda instant cuz SallyHansens dries fast.   Ain’t gotta wait on paint.  

The bottom, FireTiger, I think I sent to Vcrider... the stipple spots, lines were sharpie.

Ddave you need to browse the WarmWater section.   There’s gobs of ideas over there.   Kinda let this place go to the more pure/ elitist crowd.  They not big on off the wall, fly-lure innovation.    Not trying to run them down they are amazing for sure just kinda 2 different worlds so to speak.  I’ve invaded here way to long...