popper advice?

[FishnDave]

On 7/2/2018 at 10:42 PM, fishinwrench said:

After years of sanding cork and carrying on I fell in love with these made from laminated craft foam.  They cast great, do a big authoritive POP,  and in the right hands can make as much racket as a buzzbait. Just forget it's a popper and start speed-stripping it like a big streamer, the flat face and cinched down waist causes some really cool things to happen.   Make them as big as you can cast, the bigger the better.  

@fishinwrench Those look great!  Maybe I've asked this before....Do you have any suggestions on how to keep the heads from spinning around the shank, even after gluing?  Maybe its not a problem?

In addition to blockhead poppers...

I've have really good luck with Howitzer head poppers.  You can get the heads from Flymen Fishing Company website.

[fishinwrench]

I don't have any problems with the body's spinning at all.  I use Loc-tite super glue gel and cinch down the waist while the glue is still wet.   That sucker ain't going nowhere.    Sometimes I have to put new eyes on them because the hollow googly eyes get popped off if you smack the motor or the side of the boat with a crazy cast.   Otherwise they pretty much last forever.

Those in the bottom pic look sweet !

[kjackson]

This looks like a fun project to add to the 417 other projects on my plate for this winter.  What size hooks are you using?  I've not found a ton or largemouth where I've been fishing the most part, but I'd think a popper might work on white bass as well.

[fishinwrench]

6 minutes ago, kjackson said:

This looks like a fun project to add to the 417 other projects on my plate for this winter.  What size hooks are you using?  I've not found a ton or largemouth where I've been fishing the most part, but I'd think a popper might work on white bass as well.

#1/0 on the LM poppers, #2 for Smallies.  

For topwater Whites a Crease fly is a better option than a regular popper 

Casts further/picks up easier, and has a sexy WTD dance on a fast retrieve.  An added bonus of the Crease fly is it does really cool stuff sub-surface if fished on a sink-tip

[FishnDave]

oooh yeah!  I've caught whites on Crease flies!

[kjackson]

Off to Wally World today to pick up a couple of things I don't have, then it's off to Crease Fly land.   Poppers may take a bit longer to start on.  I've been thinking about trying to modify those plastic wine corks as bodies. Has anyone had luck with those?  

[Flysmallie]

3 hours ago, kjackson said:

Has anyone had luck with those?  

I've made lots of dust. 

[tjm]

I've never done well with poppers and consequently don't make them any more. A gurgler makes plenty of disturbance for me and is tons easier to construct. but, I have seen pictures of small poppers made from flipflops that the guy claimed worked fine for him. It's fly material I haven't yet used and as close as the nearest closet.

[Flysmallie]

29 minutes ago, tjm said:

I've never done well with poppers and consequently don't make them any more. A gurgler makes plenty of disturbance for me and is tons easier to construct. but, I have seen pictures of small poppers made from flipflops that the guy claimed worked fine for him. It's fly material I haven't yet used and as close as the nearest closet.

Flip flops work but I’m a lot like you, just give me a gurgler. Skating a gurgler across current is one of my favorite things. 

[kjackson]

Started sorting through my stacks of gear, looking for foam sheets and found a stash of popper heads that I used for Miyawaki beach poppers (really a slider and not a popper). The next box turned up some fly boxes with beach stuff from Washington. Found quite a few Wog flies, poppers and some sample poppers designed for coho in rivers.  It will be interesting to see how/if some of the salmon designs will work on our fish. I know the Gurglers will.  

The Miyawaki poppers (https://fridaynightflies.com/friday-night-flies-miyawaki-beach-popper/) are tied on a hook shank, with the gape and hook point cut off (after the tie).  A short length of braid is added to the shank with a second hook tied on. The idea is that the fish wouldn't have the leverage of a long hook to work against.  It's an expansion of the tube fly design, something a lot of steel headers buy into. Never did catch a coho on one, but they did work on cutthroat. Any surface fly was a hoot for those fish.