Bluegill Poppers

[DanMarino]

[J. Rentch]

Won’t be long and you will be using them. I can’t wait to try some of mine! Don’t forget our contest!

[Mark]

Nice work, Tom.

You're going to inspire me to tie some flies. Ive been lazy about that this winter.

[Mark]

Tom,

I was out running errands today and I stopped at a Michael's craft store. For $5.72 I got a lifetime supply of foam sheets for fly tying.

So, I sat at my fly tying table this afternoon and made these two two-tone gurglers with the foam.

Each is size 4. I consider them crossover gurglers -- small enough for bluegills, big enough for bass.

Here's the first:

gurgler2.jpg

And here's the second -- pink for female bluegills and bass, of course!

gurgler1.jpg

Thanks for encouraging me to get to the table by posting your creations. I'll make a few more gurglers and then concentrate on some perch streamers.

[DanMarino]

Those gurglers look beautiful Mark. I've tied a few up in the past. Caught a few fish on them, but they never seemed as effective as the hot pink foam spiders I use.

Last season I had pretty good success with cylindrical foam poppers with that wooden popper jig you use. I can't remember the make of the popper jig. Anyway, I was still using small hooks, but made the poppers have a slightly longer cylinder than the jig makes. It worked really well for bass and bluegills. Here's a photo.


Also, here's my latest popper using one of the popper hooks that my wife got me for Christmas.

[Mark]

Tom,

I'll let you know how my pink gurglers do. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? What's pink that swims with bluegills and bass? Nothing that I am aware of. Yet they hit pink flies.

I've been on a gurgler kick. I tied some more:

gurgler3.jpg

But I have to admit that I cheated. I used a Gurgler Cutter.

The popper jig you mentioned is the Krebs Popper Jig from River Road Creations. A Google search will list numerous suppliers for those reading this who are interested.

KrebsSetsSm.jpg

I really like the jig because I can make poppers in uniform bodies in various hooks sizes to target numerous species. I see how you can elongate the foam body but I have never tried that. I'll give that whirl. I have glued two cylinders together to create two-toned bodies:

Pop28.jpg Popper 2 tone (2).jpg

Also, you might want to try to reverse the body on the hook to create a slider. This is very effective when the fish are willing to come up but want a subtle disturbance on the water, not a hard pop:

slider.jpg

However, back to the gurglers...I said I cheated because I used a River Road cutter to make them. Here they are:

Gurgler cutters (2).jpg

Like the popper jig, the gurgler cutters allow uniformity per hook size. I like that. I could certainly cut the forms with scissors. But not as fast or easy. I've already punched out enough bodies to tie a lifetime supply of gurglers.

Some Saturday this year, I'm not sure when, the FSFF is going to have Krebs Jig popper session to teach members how to tie poppers made with that tool. I think I may bring the Gurgler Cutters too and introduce that to the members.

Nothing like topwater hits. The above tools help to make attractive and effective flies to ensure those hits keep coming.

[DanMarino]

Thanks Mark. Your flies always look great.

I purchased the smaller Krebs popper jig on the right side of your photo. I have trouble casting large poppers on the fly rod, plus I enjoy catching bluegills....so I went for the smaller version.

Hot pink is where it's at! I have no clue, but it works great. What I like most about the hot pink foam spiders is that they are easy for me to see on the surface of the water.

[Mark]

Tom,

Thank you.

Increase your line weight to cast larger wind-resistant bass poppers easily. I mostly use a 6 wt. or a 7 wt. in ponds to toss bass-sized poppers. There's no shame in that. I save the 5 wt. for bluegills and hold on tight when a bass hits the smaller fly intended for bluegills. They often hang out together so that happens frequently. it's a lot of fun. And frankly, some bluegills can put a nice bend in 6 wt. They amaze me how will chase big poppers and actually hookup.

[VinnieDon]

Mark:

Those are some good looking poppers. Very creative!

Don Vance

[Mark]

Don,

Thank you.

Fortunately, fish aren't discriminating. They hit the ugly ones too.

[bignose]

Tom,

Thank you.

Increase your line weight to cast larger wind-resistant bass poppers easily. I mostly use a 6 wt. or a 7 wt. in ponds to toss bass-sized poppers. There's no shame in that. I save the 5 wt. for bluegills and hold on tight when a bass hits the smaller fly intended for bluegills. They often hang out together so that happens frequently. it's a lot of fun. And frankly, some bluegills can put a nice bend in 6 wt. They amaze me how will chase big poppers and actually hookup.

You can also clip some of the front taper off of a weight forward line to get it to turn over a little more sharply.
Slow your casting motion down and throw with a more open loop.
Also, shorten your leader and use a stiff leader butt, only need a couple of feet of tippet, as bass and bluegills aren't real leader shy.
Finally, don't over dress your poppers. They don't need a lot of "shmutz" slowing them down due to air resistance. Lefty used to tie a simple cylindrical cork with a touch of bucktail off of the back......

[Mark]

You can also clip some of the front taper off of a weight forward line to get it to turn over a little more sharply.
Slow your casting motion down and throw with a more open loop.
Also, shorten your leader and use a stiff leader butt, only need a couple of feet of tippet, as bass and bluegills aren't real leader shy.
Finally, don't over dress your poppers. They don't need a lot of "shmutz" slowing them down due to air resistance. Lefty used to tie a simple cylindrical cork with a touch of bucktail off of the back......

Stu,

Excellent advice on all counts.

Mark