Pencil Poppers

[basscatcher85]

Does anyone know of any hooks that will fit these flies??? My dad has been making about two inch bodied pencil poppers and can't find a hook to fit. The hook will need to be about two and a half inches long. Any suggestions???
Thanks,

BC


P.S. The hook in the description is hard to find and does anyone know of any substitutes that would work?

http://laflyfish.com/flies/foil-popper.php

[Buddy Sanders]

You really need long shank streamer hooks or the 'kink shank' popper hooks for these.

Mustad 33903 is the kink shank, and I 'think' that the size 2 may be long enough for you.

For a streamer hook, the Mustad 3665A is a long shank hook, but you'd have to check the size to the body to get the right one (maybe call the supplier and see if they will measure a few to help you get the right size?).

You could alwyas just take a body with you the to the local fly shop or tackle dealer and find a hook that fits. Since it looks like you are in bass country, the larger the hook gap the better, so it's unlikely that you'd find a hook thats 'too big'. Some of the worm hooks might work for you.

Good Luck!

Buddy

[flyandtie]

try a 6x long or 7x long streamer hook

they would be long enough in about a size 4 or 2

[Normand]

the mustad 9674 stated in the link you provided can be found at various places in the following link

http://www.google.com/search?q=mustad+9 ... =firefox-a

[Panman]

Buddy

A size 6 Mustad 3665A is about 1 and 3/8 inches long.

Tim

[William Fitzgerald]

A great article on making 2 inch penncil poppers was in the fall 2006 Fly Fishing and Tying Journal. They use Tiemco 511S 1/0 , 4x long kink shank straight eye popper hooks.BILL

[Buddy Sanders]

Tim,

That sounds about right. He'd probably need a size 2 or 1/0.

The 9674 in size 2 should work, according to the recipe, but I'm not sure it's as long (even though the recipe mentions it) as the 34011 stainless hook.

If he doesn't want to mail order the hook specified, I'd think the best option would be to walk into the the shop and just check the streamer hooks until you found a match. It ceratinly isn't critical, as long as the hook is long enough.

I like the kink shank 33903 for such baits, simply because they are inexpensive and keep the bait from twisting.

Up to you, BC. The fis haren't going to care much.

Buddy

[oldschoolcane]

Buddy, I bought several of the 33903's awhile back and haven't been able to get them to fit the balsa bodies and I think I have the longest kink shank available? The 3/0 worm hooks I tried from Walmart work but they have to be straightened and I just don't like using bait hooks for my poppers, want to find the right hook for the job. Went to Mustad online and I simply won't use their website again, can't handle looking through all the information and clutter on the site. Would like to find a website that'l give me the actual length and dimensions of the different hooks out there. I'd go by a flyshop but have been busy lately and the shop I'd go to is too far away.


Tim

[Dr. Fish]

Hello Tim

Sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with the Mustad website. Please know we are in the process of a MAJOR overhaul to make navigation MUCH easier and reduce the number of clicks needed to find what you need. If you know a ref# you can of course type that into the search bar and it will take you right to it and you can print out hook images in actual size but there is much to be done. Please hang in there as we work on these changes to make things better. We'll be there real soon.


BC -
As for popper hooks, we used to make a 90233S and you may want to keep an eye open on ebay for them. The were plenty long enough and were made for poppers. It killed me when we dropped them but I'm trying to bring them back as there is still a need for them.

As for other options . . .
Partridge P261BLN - 6/0 length is 2.5" (77.5mm), gap is 23/32nds (18mm)
Mustad 3665A in size 2 is just a hair shy of 2" in length.
34011 in 4/0 (largest we offer) is 2 1/8th" in length
92611 in 3/0 is 2 3/8th" in length, 4/0 is 2 7/16th" in length, 5/0 is 2 9/16th in length.

Really nothing else we have that might work.

[oldschoolcane]

Jeff "Dr. Fish",

Thats good news about the changes, its difficult to even find the fly of the month pages on your website so any changes that are planned would be good. One of the major area's you may want to consider adding if its not already there is a thorough definition of the hook sizes and description of heavy shank etc. I knew that I needed at least a 2" long hook but couldn't determine the size for any of the hook models that you supply.


Tim