Tying poppers......

[paulfish_1]

I messed about with trout poppers last year and found them great fun to fish with. I did rise alot of fish and hook a few but still top sport with them.

I was wondering if any of you guys have ever tied your own trout poppers or maybe for the salt?

Could you recommend which hooks and foam bodies to buy? Best ways to secure the bodies to the hooks? Are there any SBS going about you could recommend?

Cheers
Paul

[paulfish_1]

Also do any of you guys know which paint to use?

[andy macbog]

Hi Paul,

I fish them for pike primarily and have never yet tried them on trout. But these are the jobs that I use - they do have wee'uns for trout. Though maybe you could just use densely spun deer hair.

To mount the hook and popper body I use epoxy (the hooks are specially designed and both they and the body come together). Enamel paints seem to be favoured for colouring but I just use Letraset markers as I use these for other fly tying purposes. The colours run a bit when I apply a couple of coats of varnish but this does give some nice effects! Or I can just varnish the blocks of colour separately to maintain a more solid effect. And its a good idea to run some varnish into the slot where the hook is mounted to beef up the adhesion.

Pretty easy to do though - once the body is done you just need to lash on a bit of a tail and sparkle and maybe some legs and away you go! The most time is spent on the bodies....

Good luck and have fun!

Andy

[stevekale]

Superglue on a good thread base. Don't paint them, just use permanent markers and then coat the popper with a thin coating of Bug Bond Lite. (Crease flies are awesome sport in the salt. You should take a look at them also.)