All the shaping, glueing, painting and adding tails and legs has gotten to me...I now just tie craft foam gurgler type patterns, the tails are added to the hook along with the hackle or dubbed underbodies and the legs are incorporated right along with the foam bodies.
Add some Fleximent along the bottom of the fly and they will hold up to 75 or so smallies.
They seem to cast easier and are VERY effective topwaters as well.
I'm with DarrinG on this one. I'm a bit confused about the statement; "DO NOT try to make poppers out of flip flops. The interior foam is not dense enough to make a satisfactory fly."
I've been making poppers and sliders out of flip flops for about four years now, for use in both fresh and salt water and I've never experienced any problems. Occasionally, I have experienced some delamination between glued layers on the extra thick flip flops (especially in black), however, this happens as I drill/punch out the holes and I just make smaller poppers out of the pieces. DarrinG is also right about not having to finish them up slick with paint and epoxy. The fish really don't care. I do mine that way because it's another creative outlet for me. Just another $0.02 tossed into the hat.
Jim Smith
Man I wish Jim Hatch would jump in here on your statement "DO NOT try to make poppers out of flip flops. The interior foam is not dense enough to make a satisfactory fly."
I don't know what kind of flip flops he gets but there was a rush of people asking for tips and what his dremel set up was. I've even posted the link to several other fly fishing boards and everyone was impressed with it.
Maybe you just got some bad flip flops.
Fatman
The interior layer of many flip flops is spongy to make the sandals more comfortable to walk in. Good closed cell foam has very little give. I wasted a lot of money making spongy poppers before finding out about softtiles.com where I can get better materials for a lot less money than buying flip flops.
It's kind of like wine. In school you though Boone's Farm was swell. But once you get a hold of a good Merlot....
From my experience, when I make (tie) a foam popper using the foam sandal (or flip flop) and using the copper tube method then the type of foam (as long as its floating foam) does not make a difference since I am not shaping the foam (only cutting foam cores). But when I want to shape foam on the Dremel or other tool by rotating a foam plug, the foam does make a difference. To shape foam, I need to make sure the foam is actually closed cell foam (rough in texture throughout) and not foam rubber (smooth in texture). If I tried to shape foam rubber (or a foam with a higher content of foam rubber) then the foam piece would glaze (loose friction, smooth out and spin) on the needle mandrel when I tried to spin the piece. The closed cell foam works for shaping because it has friction on the mandrel so the piece will rotate without spinning on the mandrel. There are many different kinds of foam, closed cell foam (floating) along with foam rubber, open cell foam (sinking), styrofoam, etc.
Last edited by dixieangler; 08-28-2008 at 05:43 PM.
Robert B. McCorquodale
"Flip a fly"
What brhoff said!
I use to spend hours making cork poppers and very nice ones at that. I mean no disrespect to anyone who enjoys that activity. I would rather be fishing. Let me tie up a couple of dozen Gurgle Pops in one evening and spend the rest of the month fishing them. Just me 2% of a dollar. Others will disagree; they always do. 8TOriginally Posted by brhoff
Last edited by Eight Thumbs; 08-28-2008 at 10:19 PM.
I don't paint my poppers that I make from lobster buoy foam, they don't get eyes, and the only shaping they get is a couple of swipes with a razor blade
The fish can only see whatever color is on the belly anyways and eyes are a waste of time
After I punch out a cylinder of foam it take only a few minutes to put the popper together...probably less time than it takes to build a gurgler.
That said, I'm convinced that a gurgler is the better lure the majority of the time.
The simpler the outfit, the more skill it takes to manage it, and the more pleasure one gets in his achievements.
--- Horace Kephart
Well I bought the foam heads and really was happy with the results so far. These were some of the first ones I ever made.
Skip
And my very first one...
Bob,
That was a fine set of pics/info you put up here. Thanks. I marked it for use later.
James Smith, same goes for the pictures you shared. Some great looking flies.
We all know that all you need do is glue/wrap some old junky foam and a few hackles on a hook to get great action topside. The fish rarely care but putting that much more care into it makes it all the more fun...and that's what we do this for!
Nice job fellahs.
Jeremy.
You must be buying the more expensive flip-flops. All the ones I have bought from the dollar store at the end of summer are solid EVA foam all the way thru. (EVA is less compressible than many foams.) They are wonderful, even better than the interlocking floor mats I have used.
I usually coat them in sally hansens just so they don't soak up water too fast when the Bass crush them under water!
Oh, and I LOVE using the dremel as a lathe too, while I cannot do a flat side, that is easy to add after pulling off the lathe, and I can do Jim's pig in 3 peices!
Don Rolfson
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