DOC’S WHITE AND RED WEEDLESS POPPER |
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Dr. M. Weiner
12 Modena Drive
Penacook, NH 03303-1547
603-753-8450
My granddaughter, who is almost 16 years of age, is amazed that I am still alive at my age. She expects a car for her birthday. For my 16th I dreamed of a new casting rod and reel. My dream came true along with line and a Red Devil casting spoon. It was white and red. Wise older fishermen told me that the white was like the belly of a baitfish and the red was like the gills. When a baitfish is wounded it opens its gills to get more oxygen. Several worthy bass came to net before an underwater “something” claimed my lure. I began making lures from tin can lids and carved wood. Some caught fish and others didn’t. But I was certainly caught – caught up in catching fish with lures that I made myself. At some point I tried fly-tying, which soon became a life-long obsession. A very pleasant obsession I must add. I learned to tie a wooly bugger before I could cast 30 feet. The disparity between my flies and casting remains. I now tie a beautiful weedless wooly bugger and can cast well only 50 feet. I’ll describe my wooly bugger in another article.
My second store-bought lure was a white and red popper. It was effective when not hung up in the weeds and pads. When I began tying flies, weedless was in the back of my mind. I could not find much written about weedless flies until saltwater fly-fishing blossomed. I developed a method of tying weedless flies that satisfies me. I will describe the methods as I take you through the steps of constructing Doc’s Weedless White and Red Popper. In addition to the usual tools and parts you will need a fly rotator to keep the epoxy finish from dripping and sagging. I find the NuWave line of rotators to be the very best which is why I am writing for their website.
Doc’s Weedless White and Red Popper
| Hook: | Mustad 34011 size 3/0, de-barbed, sharpened and bent back. |
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Thread: |
Gudebrod Super G, white. |
| Tail: | A sparse bunch of (25 to 50 strands) of super hair (by Spirit River), white. |
Body: |
A cylinder of popper foam, 3/8” diameter, by 1” long. A strip of 1/16” wide red tape. 3D eyes, silver, 5mm diameter, 60-second or 5-minute epoxy. Glitter. |
| Wing: | White ultra hair (by Thompson). 1. Spiral thread from hook eye to bend and back to the eye. Cover closure of eye with thread and spiral back to the center of the shank. Tie in a sparse bunch of super from the bend back to the bend of the hook. The tail should extend one hook length to the rear of the hook bend.
2. Hold foam on top of hook shank and secure it to the hook shank with gentle thread spirals so as not to dent the foam. Tie off your thread at the bend back. 3. Mix up a bit of epoxy and apply it to both sides where the hook meets the foam. Place fly in rotator until epoxy is hard – five minutes for 60-second epoxy or 15 minutes for 5-minute epoxy. You can now turn your rotator off and let the fly totally harden. I hang them on a coffee cup and leave them overnight. 4. I like a flat face body. Others prefer a slant and others cup the face with a Dremel type motor tool. Apply 3D eyes to each side of the popper and a strip of red tape all around the body behind the eyes. This is the gill stripe of a wounded minnow. The tape can be obtained from Micro-Mark in New Jersey: 1-800-225-1066 www.micromark.com 5. Mix up some 5 minute epoxy with glitter. I use a flat toothpick. The amount of glitter is the amount I can pick up with the large end of a toothpick. Fly shops generally carry 1/8” disposable brushes by Flex-coat used for applying finish rod wraps. Use a disposable brush to coat the foam, eyes and red stripe. Place fly in rotator until hard and hang until totally hard. 6. Put the fly in your vise with the point up. Between the bend back and the hook eye tie a sparse bunch of ultra hair. Whip-finish your thread. Use Goop head cement and cover the head of the fly and the wing (to within ¼ inch of the hook point.) Rotate and hang. This wing becomes a brush type weed guard. I use this type of weed guard on all my flies. I wouldn’t leave home without it. The trick is to make the wing stiff with cement but to leave the ¼-inch near the hook point cement free. Trim the wing to one hook gap beyond the hook bend.
This fly is great for bass, blues, tarpon, etc. You can also tie it in sizes 1/0, 2, 4 and 6 for other fresh and salt-water fish. Here is a size chart for hook size and foam size. |
| Hook size | Foam Diameter | Length |
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| 3/0 | 3/8” | 1” |
| 1/0 | 3/8” | 3/4” |
| 2 | 1/4” |
3/4” |
4 |
1/4” | 5/8” |
| 6 | 3/16” | 1/2” |
Go forth and enjoy!
ADDENDUM
These tips are related to my method of tying poppers.
- 60-second epoxy is available at ACE Hardware Stores and some fly shops.
- Foam cylinders sold in fly shops are generally 1 ¾” long. I have found two tools that are useful to cut the foam straight and true. The one I like best is a deluxe chopper from Micro-Mark: 1-800-225-1066 www.micromark.com.
It consists of a metal arm which holds a single edge razor blade attached to a metal base with a cutting pad. A built-in clamp holds angle forms so that you can repeatedly cut the same length pieces. The second tool does not have the length stop feature. It is a tubing scissors from MSC: 1-800-654-7270 www.mscdirect.com
The lower jaw of the scissors has various sizes of holes, which hold the foam for a square cut.
- Each time you cut a cylinder you have a leftover. Cement leftovers together with a bit of epoxy and you have more cylinders.
- If you tie many hundreds of poppers, you can save money by buying blocks of foam and making or buying plug cutters.
- Foam can be purchased in a variety of colors including some marble cake mixtures such as red and white or black, white and gray. You can also color white foam with permanent marking pens.
- I use one head cement for all of my saltwater fly tying. It is Goop thinned half-and-half with Toluol. I keep it in a half-ounce bottle with a brush cap. These bottles are obtained from Micro-Mark. The Goop and thinner are available from most hardware stores. It takes about a week for the Goop and thinner to mix so I make up six bottles at a time.
Doc
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