Poppers tracking inconsistently

[Clay]

A friend and I were discussing poppers made using these cutting dies (http://www.jvlnet.com/~swinters/ ) while fishing yesterday and an issue came up in the conversation that I am hopping that you can help resolve. While making poppers like the enclosed photo, some of them track in the water very well, like a crank bait, and others ride to the side. The center hole in the fly where the hook goes through is a constant since the die cuts this hole while cutting the plug so we don't think it is the center hole. Perhaps how the lip is cut could be a source of the problem.

I was wondering if any of you ran across this same issue with this type of fly and what you might recommend as a way to make them more consistently so they track better while fishing. Thanks for any input.

[Normand]

I'm thinking that's more of a "slider" than a "popper"

in any case i would want the action to be erratic vs tracking in a straight line. isn't that the idea, to attract the fish by weird movements?

[Clay]

You're probably right about the slider vs popper thing. That is not my tie and I haven't used that type of fly at all. The man that I was salmon fishing with yesterday and subsequently chasing small mouth with uses this type of fly often. He had the question and and I didn't have a good answer for him but thought someone here would.

He is looking to have the fly wobble similarly to a Rapala. A nice steady attractive wobble. If you fishing it by jerking it a foot or two at a time and wanted the erratic behavoir, I'm sure it wouldn't matter as much.

[rookie]

To get it to track straight, slightly bend the eye, if possible to the side. Had to do this many times using crank baits.

[Clay]

To get it to track straight, slightly bend the eye, if possible to the side. Had to do this many times using crank baits.

I've tunned crankbaits like that before as well but the bodies on the crankbaits are solid and will let you bend the eye of the crank unlike this foam plug with the soft body. Could be worth a try for something this is very slightly out of tune.

[maodiver]

I have found that sometimes when cutting foam, the cutter drags slightly on the foam when cutting, making the cut slightly "off". I don't know if this applies in this case.

[dudley]

I've found that the way a bug is stripped contributes most to it's action
To 'walk the dog' you need to strip the line in a short jerky action. Only about 4-6 inches a strip.
Also you might want to trim the nose to a point as viewed from above.. one even cut on each side... something like this

==XXX>

clear as mud

[Bass_Bug]

Tuning soft body flies like this can be done with a pair on needle nose pliers of sturdy hemostats. Just pinch the hook behind the eye with the pliers up from the bottom and hold tight, then put slight pressure on the side of the bend of the hook at the back. It should bend/tune the hook on the back edge of the pliers.

On the other hand the tailing material could cause it track off center if the material is not equal.

However as long as it riding up and not leaning over I would worry about it.

[Alberto]

Bass-Bug, in the book "Popfleyes", Bob Popovics talks about tuning some of his poppers and Sili-clones by trimming them (while fishing them) with a small pair of scissors.

- Alberto

[Buddy Sanders]

Clay,

I tie a very similar design..

If the lip isn't cut absolutley straight across, the fly will tend to run a bit off center on LONG strip/pull...

To fix this: It helps to try to get the things as straight as possible in the beginning. Use a miter box type cutter (I use a hobby miter box with a razor blade to cut mine).

But, since you are glueing them through a center hole, you have to center the lip area so that the extreme bottom of the front edge of the lip is centered directly in line with the hook...unless you can think of a way to build a jig for this, you got to eyeball it.

Once you begin fishing one of these, you can easily adjust them WITHOUT bending the hook...if it tracks to the right, that means the lip is off center to the right (thus the lip is grabbing more water on that side, pulling hte fly in that direction)...grab the foam lip and pull it back, HARD, to the left a bit. It doesn't take much.

One other thing....ALWAYS use this type of fly with a loop knot. If you aren't doing that, they will NEVER track consistently.