Dressing Popper, First or Last

Do you normally glue on the popper body first and then dress the fly or dress it and then place on the body. I've been placing the body first.

That's what I do.

I make about a dozen bodies ata time and string them on a piece of thin wire. Then I paint them with a spritz of spray paint and let them dry. That way I can use them to make either poppers of slides depending on what I need. Once the paint is dry, I add any other markings I may want, then I glue it in place on the hook and add the finish (usually 2 part epoxy) and the eyes. I sometimes add very fine glitter to the epoxy to add a bit of sparkle. I make up a number of these and set them aside cure. Then, when I need them, I finish off with the addition of the tails, and collars etc. That way, everything is dry and it only takes me 4-5 minutes to tie in the feathers, fur etc.

Jim Smith

If I am going to do any kind of painting of the body, then it goes on first. If I am doing foam bodies that will be left alone, then I glue the body on after finishing the tail. This also goes along with the fact that my foam body poppers are strictly for catching fish ... I am not too concerned with them being pretty. With painted flies, I am trying to improve my skills and looking for that pretty picture fly.

I have always dressed my bugs after the body has been attached to the hook; both foam and balsa bugs. This is the way I was taught some decades ago. I never paint my foam bugs, as they are made from colored foam. The only bugs I tie where the hook is dressed first are deer hair bugs.

I try not to hold anything back in my articles and in http://www.flyanglersonline.com/arti...se20120827.php you will note I make the tails first. Why? Stability/endurance and appearance. This allows me to snug up the body to a finished tail that has been cemented and will not unwind. With or without a collar, finishing the tail first leaves no gap between the tail materials and the back of the body. Also, finishing the tail beyond the point of the hook, allows me to have more assurance I will not block the hook gap with my body.
I will make as many as two dozen tails of different colors and sizes before I carve the popper heads. Really easy and quick to do if you have your materials assembled.

I read your article several times, but I didn't remember what I read.

I put the tail material on first. Then the body so the gule holds the bodyandthe thread for the tail material.
This lets me have the body right up against the skirt.

Rick

I do mine tail-first. Just because I have always done them that way.