Poppers

[Armando]

Poppers Are One Of My Favorite Patterns For Salt Species As Well As For Peacocks And Amazon Species That Go For It. Nothing Beats A Strike On The Surface.
What Materials Do You Prefer? Preshaped Foams, Balsa, Cork.....?
And How Do You Like To Finish Them, Paints, Mylar, Shiny Tapes?
Do You Prefer Very Noisy Poppers Or Just Fair On Water Disturbance?
I Love Noisy Shiny Poppers, Covered With Myllar, And Plain White Or Black For Night Fishing.

[dudley]

Hi Armendo, Nothing better than a strike on top!

For my popper bodys I like lobster bouy foam .Something that you probably don't see a lot of in your neck of the woods. The busted bouys are free for the taking on the beach.
I slice the foam to the length I want then punch out the bodys with a sharpened tube.I then shape them to what ever style I feel like making.
I have accumulated many colors,so I rarely use any finish.
Cheap and easy.
I also like the Gartside gurgler which often works better than a popper and is very easy to tie.

[tyguy]

I use anything from lobster bouy foam (good choice dudley!) to earplugs, covered with my "special "Eerie-Descence" material and a variety of colors.

I also love crease flies. I tie them with a large mouth opening so they pop really well. These I also cover with my "Eerie-Descence". See attached...

[Slappy]

Ty-guy are your poppers hard bodied?

Do you find that your hit/hookup ratio is lower on hardbodied flys?

[Pauper Piscator]

Buy a small bag of those cigar shaped styrofoam floats at a tackle store.

They are about 3 inces long and come in orange and white or half white and half orange.

Cut one in half down the middle and slide over the leader. Throw away the plastic "plug". Tie on a simple deciever pattern. Slide the foam down over the head of the fly. Viola. Popper. Turn the foam pointed end frontwards and you have a slider.

Durable? Not particualy. But for 50 cents you can buy a bag of them and you get two "popper heads" each.

[tyguy]

Ty-guy are your poppers hard bodied?

Do you find that your hit/hookup ratio is lower on hardbodied flys?

Some are hard-bodied, some aren't. In theory, the soft-bodied ones should hook up better, but honestly, I have not seen a real difference. I think the magic is in keeping the hook gap as large as possible when assembling the body and keeping the hook extremely sharp.

[tyguy]

Buy a small bag of those cigar shaped styrofoam floats at a tackle store.

They are about 3 inces long and come in orange and white or half white and half orange.

Cut one in half down the middle and slide over the leader. Throw away the plastic "plug". Tie on a simple deciever pattern. Slide the foam down over the head of the fly. Viola. Popper. Turn the foam pointed end frontwards and you have a slider.

Durable? Not particualy. But for 50 cents you can buy a bag of them and you get two "popper heads" each.

Yeah, I used some old cork ones I had lying around from my old surf/bait fishing days. They work great and like you said, you get two heads instead of one.

Poppers rule... :)

[Armando]

Which is the lobster foam, is it natural?
yesterday after writing this post I carved 5 balsa poppers, they arent as durable as foam poppers but look neat.
Here's a pic of two of them I havent epoxy finished them yet.

[tyguy]

Which is the lobster foam, is it natural?
yesterday after writing this post I carved 5 balsa poppers, they arent as durable as foam poppers but look neat.
Here's a pic of two of them I havent epoxy finished them yet.

Lobster buoy foam is man made and usually found washed up on a beach, especially after a storm. They are nothing but marker floats for lobster pots made out of a fairly dense foam, usually painted in a bright color so they are easy to spot.

Your poppers look great!

[Snuffy]

I use an ear plug hollowed out with curved scissors, Copper Nail polish color and 5 min epoxy finish for strength...

http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/028973.JPG

[ruge13]

Clear Nail polish makes a great finish, I use it on crease flies. I have been fishing surface flies the majority of this year. Previously I used them only with visable fish, now its my calm water search pattern any time I can use it. I will take a shoolie hit on the surface over a larger fish taken deep any day....Never gets old.

I am a big fan of gurglers because they are easy to cast and can replace a month's worth of bluefish cutoffs in one 2 hour tying session. I like crease flies, but tend to make them more similar to poppers anyway.

Armando if you want some lobster foam let me know, I would be more than happy to send you some. Send me a PM.

I prefer a noisy popper, but the fish don't always. Sometimes I need to tone it down, slow the retrieve to just a slight wake to get a strike. There are times when bass won't hit it until its stopped dead so I tend to vary presentation until I can get consistant takes. I like 3 colors, white, then white, then maybe yellow.
Poppers and crease nail polish. Gurglers I don't use any finish. I go through them so fast its not worth it. Just some bucktail, maybe a strand or 3 of flashabou, palmered hackle or estaz, and the craft foam for me.

[Armando]

I used to use some of those ear foams but they were to soft and most of the time with the glue, epoxy and hook they sanked (#1/0 to 2/0 hooks).
Hey Snuffy that popper has to be great on redfish or what else you use it for?
Noisy poppers work a lot with peacocks they love that sound or better they really hate it 'cause they explode in anger right on the surface to grab it. In salt water I use them also to call fish in, sometimes jacks wont strike no more so I cast the popper in just to lift it up and be noisy several times 'till I see them all over the place looking after it, strikes are instant, works well on cudas too.
The other thing that came to my mind are the sliders after reading what Ruge said about the low noise needed some times. I dont use them that much, prefer dahlberg divers, but heres a pic of one, still havent finished it at all.

[Snuffy]

I concieved it as a redfish fly, but I've had better success with Specks, Flounder and ladyfish coming up for it, than Reds. I think it's because I'm fishing a little deeper water over structure here in TX, rather than fishing flats like I was in SC. Not too much sight casting here in the muddy water of the Middle Laguna Madre.
The best part of the fly is the price!!

[LeonR]

I prefer the soft type of foam, it costs more but the pre-shaped ones work well, they are light to cast and easy to tie on. For colours I go for white and chartruese most of the time.
One thing I like to do and it maked the fly look a lot better is to fitst tie on the material and then slide the head on and partially over the material, covering the thread.
You need to use hooks with a shaft as long as possible, what this do is let the fly float with the mouth up and the bend of the hook ander water, when you pull you get a much better pop.
You must also try and tie almost all af the popper body on top of the shaft so that you don't have any thing getting in the way of the hook point.

[Armando]

I always tie my poppers the way you say Leon, sometimes I glue the head to the hook before painting and tying the tail, and it doesnt look the same.
Also on any hook without the special curve for poppers I always tie in some chenille or yarn, soak it in epoxy and then incert the popper head, it gets very strong never had a popper head spinning on the hook.

[dudley]

I attach my tail in a differert manner.
I select the material, often synthetic or natural hair from used or rejected flies,or what ever is handy.
I hold it in my left hand and whip finish the butt ends. Then trim the butts.
With a hot bodkin I melt a hole in the foam large enough for the tail.
The hole is filled with hot glue and the tail is stuffed in.

[bones]

This is all great information. I will experiment with poppers this winter. The store-bought one's I have used seem to be too heavy and are exceedingly difficult to cast. They also hurt when they hit me in the back of the head.

Armando! Welcome back! Where you been? I wanted to send you some deer tail but you never sent me your address..........had 'em sitting on my tying bench for a few months and one of my Labrador Retrievers ate 3 of them.

Armando, you are an artist at tying poppers. I hope I get as good as you.

What kind of fish do you catch down there in Columbia?

[Armando]

Hi Bones
I know its been a long time since the last time....
I've been working hard, so hard I am not happy, havent got time to fish as much as I did before but that's changing hopefully.
Those tails are welcome, Ill pm you my address.
Right here I fish for peacocks, payaras, sardinatas and some other huge toothy fresh water species. In saltwater the usual fish, cudas, jacks, baby tarpon, snook, I've also had snappers striking twice...
Thanks for compliments, but poppers arent too tough, you should try. All you need is some spare time.
Best regards and thanks for your welcome.

[Armando]

Oh heres a 20 pound payara pic.