The
Hard Bodied Popper
By Richard
Carter
The Hard Bodied Popper is a fly
that has been around for a long time not partially due to its
ease of tying. It has also proven to been a very effective style
of fly on a vast range of species both in saltwater and in the
fresh. Poppers are very effective on ambush feeders like mangrove
jack, trevally and other estuary species. In the fresh water
most of our native species are attracted to poppers, particularly
our premier freshwater sportfish the Australian Bass. Not forgetting
saltwater pelagics like salmon, tailor, yellowtail kingfish and
mackerel species. Trout too are a viable popper target too, especially
in hopper or cicada season and particularly at night on lake
dwellers. The hard bodied popper type patterns were developed
to represent food items moving on the surface. Like panicking
baitfish or terrestrial life forms that have fallen in to the
water and are trying to get back to dry land.
Popper heads from left: small,
large and pencil
The reason for this article comes
from there being a packet of popper heads in group of raffle
prizes at one of the meetings of my fly club. Then the question
being raised as to "what do you do with them?" by the
guy who won them in the raffle. The main materials of the fly
are the body material of preformed popper heads sold in small
packets of 5 or so. Sometimes the packets include hooks, if not
use wide gape 'stinger' style hooks. Basically you attach the
head to the hook and then add any tail materials that you think
would be effective. The popper heads come in two prime types.
There are the short thick heads and a longer body style commonly
called 'pencil' poppers. Tail materials include but not restricted
to - marabou, splayed hackles, or zonker strips, plus anything
else that takes your fancy or may be sitting in your tying cabinet
or combination there of.
The Hard Bodied Popper can be
tied in a variety of sizes and colours to suit the water clarity
or brightness of the day. All black or all white version would
suit most situations. Then again a red face with a white body
and tail materials works a treat on tailor and salmon. Purple
and black combinations are my favourite colours for Australian
Bass.
Aside form the store bought preformed
plastic/foam popper heads you can also shape your own popper
heads out of balsa wood. Or even that soft white foam used in
packaging (sorry forget the technical name), shaping with a razor
blade, inserting on hook and giving a coating of epoxy and then
giving it a paint job (but they are not too durable). There are
also disposable safety ear plugs which due to their ability to
compact and expand easily make in built good weed guards by placing
them on the hook shank so they cover the hook gape. Also a round
piece of copper pipe with the edges sharpened can cut an almost
unlimited amount of popper heads out of a two dollar pair of
thongs from Woolworths or Go-Lo. There are lots of materials
that can be used to popper heads, have a look around and your
will be amazed what you can use.
Let's tie a some using the preformed ones you can buy in a tackle
store……..
Tying Sequence
1) There are sometimes issues with the hook shank fitting in
the slot in the popper head, so use a knife edge or large scissors
and wiggle it in the slot till the hook shank fit can in (if
extreme cases use a hack saw blade to re-cut the slot. I give
any thin hook shanks which may be a bit loose in the slot a very
tight bed of thread to assist in the glue hold the popper head
but only if required.
2) Position hook shank into the slot on bottom of popper head.
Ensure position of popper head is correct then give this a couple
of drops of super glue allowing to dry for 10 or so minutes.
3) I then apply a bit of five minute epoxy to the slot area inverting
the fly so the epoxy sinks into the slot, as opposed to dripping
out. Stroke popper head slot with a tooth pick to ensure all
of slot is filled and no air bubbles.
4) Make up all the poppers in the bag or as many as you are tying
at the time if making your own heads and attach them to a piece
of timber or broom handle.
5) Paint the poppers with spray paint ( small spray cans used
for touch ups just perfect for the job) or model paints for the
fancy multi-coloured heads. Allow plenty of time to for paint
to dry. You could add optional colour spots or markings with
fabric paints (24 hour drying time for these).
6) If you want to add legs to your popper fly (great addition
to any bass fly), use a very small drill and drill through the
popper head just above the hook shank.. you may need to paint
after drilling or drill before painting step.
7) Add a short piece of zonker strip to the start of the hook
bend.
8) Tie in a large neck hackle fro mthe back or your dry fly cape
or any saddle hackle will do, then form a collar behind the popper
head .
9) Insert your bobbin threader into the previously drilled hole
and insert some rubber legs into it and pull through. Adding
a drop of super glue to either side of the drilled hole to keep
the rubber legs in place. Use maker pen to cover up any unpainted
areas caused by these last few steps.
10) Trim legs to an even width on either side of the popper head.
11) Glue on a couple of rattle dolls eyes to the sides of the
popper head with superglue or epoxy.
To me this is the most effective,
easiest and quickest tail set up. Though an optional touch of
flash material wouldn't hurt, usually tied in at zonker strip
time.
To add weed guards so you can
cast fly onto weed beds a then strip off (a very effective use
of poppers on bass in impoundments) - Do the following steps.
1) Get a very small drill, the size of 45lb mono (or what ever
mono you are using for your weed guards).
2) Drill in a couple of holes in front of the hook point and
to each side of the hook shank.
3) Insert two bits of mono, trim to size and superglue in to
place.
4) Using the tips of your long nose pliers put a right angle
on the tip of the mono to form an "L" shape.
This fly can be tied in as many colour combinations as there
are colours. Chartreuse and yellow, all pink with black dots,
pink/black strips, blues, greens, olive and brown to tan. A white
version with a little silver flash works well in really clear
saltwater and on bright days. Still all these variations of the
basic pattern must have lots of suggestive movement and a good
action on retrieval.
Slider
on the left, Popper on the right
For something a little different, reverse the popper head to
create a slider instead of a popper. These the popper fly type
dives a little and leave a attractive bubble trail on the retrieve.
Even more effective when using a sink tip line as the line pulls
the fly even further under the surface and on the pause rises
back to the surface. The seductive wiggle it gives on rising
back to the surface proves almost irresistible to bass, mangrove
jack and other ambush predators. Out of the usual tackle store
bought bag of popper heads containing five popper heads, I usually
make three poppers and two sliders to cover all options when
next on the water.
Finished Patterns
Clockwise from top Left : Yellow head Popper (marabou tail),
Big Eye Popper (zonker tail), Frog Popper with knotted bucktail
legs, Big Eye Slider (zonker tail), Trout nighttime popper (size
6 hooks - great for spangle perch in tropical regions), Yellow
Metallic Fishscale Balsa Popper (splayed hackle and flash based
tail, carved balsa head), another Trout nighttime popper, Harlequin
Popper (splayed grizzle hackle tail, purple marabou collar, rubber
legs)
Fishing notes
In the freshwater - target structure,
get right in to the timber and I mean right in amongst the timber
(weed guards come in handy here). Along the edges of weed beds
a very good option too. A good tip to use sometimes for the popper
fly is to cast it out and just before in lands give the fly line
a quick strip, this speeds up the laying out of the loop in your
cast and causes the fly to SMACK on to the water surface (an
alarm bell for sleeping bass). Wait till all the ripples have
dispersed, then making sure your rod and line are in a straight
line, give the line a short but very sharp strip, cause the fly
to POP! (thus the name). Wait till all the ripples have again
disappeared then repeat till a few meters away from the structure
and re-cast, you may have only just woken up the fish slumbering
in the shade of horizontal tree limbs (my favourite structure
to target). Sometimes you need to hang that fly out there just
sitting for several seconds. You can also twitch the tip of you
rod so it sends a shiver through the fly without moving it forward.
Try to pick up the fly quietly
when preparing to recast, even to the point of skating it across
the surface which will sometimes entice a looker into a taker.
If you polaroid the fish hanging beneath your popper just looking
at it, give the fly an even medium paced and length strip as
this will sometimes provoke the tentative fish into action, if
a little twitching of the fly doesn't.
The take or strike on a popper
is so visual and audible you will find you look for as many opportunities
as possible to use them. Enjoy tying your hard bodied poppers,
then also successful fishing, hopefully.
Richard.
