Hard Headed Poppers

[mark s]

Hey all,

So I’m back in the bass fishing mode right now and I want to tie up some different poppers other than deer hair.

[Carter Simcoe]

Mark, some guys use a dremel tool to make a lathe and carve them out of chunks of foam which are often salvaged from crappy chinese kids toys and flip flops at wal*fart.

I don’t use many, mostly just pencil poppers when I do, so I just by the pre formed ones supplied by Wapsi, they’re made of a very hard styrafoam type material.

[mark s]

Yep, gurglers are on my list and in my box.

[Carter Simcoe]

for topwater?

[anonymous]

Mark, you inspired me.

I use the little bottle corks you can get from Hook and Hackle or Jann’s Netcraft. If you have an old style hardware store near you, you may also find them there. You will have to slice a small slot on the bottom of the cork for the hook shank to fit into. I use a coping saw blade. You’ll also need the kink shank popper hooks, available from H&H.

Epoxy the cork on the hook shank with 5-min epoxy or even super glue. Paint, punch rubber legs through, and have fun!

PS A cork just under 1/2 inch long and about 5/16 round will work on a # 6 or even # 8 hook, although you will have to shorten the cork on the latter.

[mark s]

Very nice Scott.

[anonymous]

Pieces-parts

[anonymous]

A few more shots for overkill.

To make a slider, turn the cork the other way and round down the front end.

[Neal Osborn]

Scott, thanks for sharing photos of your poppers.

[marc arndt]

What’s the method for attaching the sili legs?

[Bob Riggins]

I’ve pretty much abandoned hard body poppers due to the difficulty of casting them.

[anonymous]

What’s the method for attaching the sili legs?

Mark, I use a small drill bit in a dremel tool (3/32 I think). You might have to buy a smaller collet to hold the tiny drill bit. Drill through and use the eye of a needle or threader tool to pull the rubber legs through.

For those interested, I just put up a video blog on fishing them at:
http://www.flyflinger.com/wpblog/?p=280

[marc arndt]

What’s the method for attaching the sili legs?

Mark, I use a small drill bit in a dremel tool (3/32 I think). You might have to buy a smaller collet to hold the tiny drill bit. Drill through and use the eye of a needle or threader tool to pull the rubber legs through.

For those interested, I just put up a video blog on fishing them at:
http://www.flyflinger.com/wpblog/?p=280

Excellent, thank you. I’ve been thinking of trying my hand at poppers, and there has been a lot of good info here lately.

[Andrew Wright]

Those are some nice looking flies thanks for posting. What kind of paint/finish did you use to make that shiny black one?

Nice hopper too Bob.

[anonymous]

What kind of paint/finish did you use to make that shiny black one?

Acrylic paints and a couple of coats of clear nail polish.

[marc arndt]

BTW, the May/June Southwest Fly Fishing has a good article on tying a cork popper, by Charlie Kears,

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