Walt's poppers recipe

[fly-chucker]

Do you really need to paint?
Myself and several of my fishing friends never use painted poppers. We fish foam poppers in either white, gray, black or yellow. I really don't think that the fish care about fancy colors.

Next time you're in the pool, swim down to the bottom and look up at something on the surface. All you can really see is a silhouette antway.

Kevin

[ronhenry123]

Kevin, the main reason for me to paint them is so I can see them. I have a hard time seeing some colors on the water, and white is the worst! If it wasn't for my bad eyes, it'd be a lot easier to tie up a few poppers! Thanks for the advice. Ron

[Uncle Jesse]

You can get foam in most of the basic colors you want, I'm partial to charteuse and white, the colors are mostly for the fishermen ( I have made poppers in team colors for my SEC & ACC friends) Permanent sharpies come in a wide variety of color also. I like to put a couple of black or red dots on the belly of the flies, don't really know if it helps or not.

I have thought that maybe the fish primarily hit the feathers, thinking it some dragonflies or other big bug and the body just kept that floating. I tend to catch more fish from my dropper fly that from my popper. Honestly I tend to fish more gurglers, foam grasshoppers, spiders, etc that are not as wind resistant when using the 3 wt. I like to use for bream.

[bamboo10]

Check out the large foam numbers and letters at the local hobby shop. They are about an inch thick and come in several colors. You can use a peice of the brass tubing in a drill to cut out the size you want. I just chuck up a peice of tubing in the drill put some sandpaper on a board, then hold the drill at an angle while running to sharpen the tube. Or you can buy sets of hole cutters for your drill.
GJ

[aged_sage]

I would like to add three things to the previous responses.

1). After sanding either cork or balsa, "prime" the body with Gesso before painting. This is a white, water-based material that is brushed onto canvas to produce a flat surface for oil paints. It is available wherever artist supplies are sold.

2). Balsa bodies can be made more durable by coating the body, after painting, with 2-Ton (30 min) epoxy. Mix the epoxy and thin to the desired consistency with plain old rubbing alcohol, and paint on. I usually mix at a ratio of one part mixed epoxy to 1/2 part alcohol, but I may mix 1 part mixed epoxy with an equal part of alcohol. This makes a very thin mix. (Forget the "Old Wives Tale" that the water in the rubbing alcohol will turn the mix white: ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE!)

3). Instead of a vertical face, slanting the face up and back will produce a diving bug, a la Charlie Cypert's Pencil Popper,which is a very effective "bug". A slope of about 15 degrees works quite well. This also works quite well for solid-body foam minnow patters; no, not "crease" minnows.