hair poppers

[garb72]

i have never fished them and i was wondering if you dress them with floatant or not when fishing them.

[fishbum]

50 years ago we used a floatant that was made with carbon tetrachloride and pariffin. Today I use Colman fuel and pariffin. Does a pretty good job but not as good as the old mix.

They get pretty soggy if you don't do something to them.

fishbum

[garb72]

will ginks work at all?

[rainbowchaser]

Any floatant that waterproofs the hair will help. I keep a can old fashioneed mucilin just for hair bugs because its easier to work the paste down into the hair than with somethng that liquifies faster. You will still have to squeeze the excess water out occasionally. Sealing the ends of the hair on the bottom and sides with laquer or Sally Hansens at the tying desk sems to help also

[Buddy Sanders]

A simple soak in a permanent water proofing liquid like Watershed or a camp type silicone waterproofer will keep them floating for years.

Dip them in after you tie them. Let them soak up the liquid, then dry them overnight on a paper towel.

No playing around with mixing flamable stuff into wax. The gink type temporary fly floatants are messy and don't last long on bass bugs..working the bug knocks it all off pretty quick. That paste stuff just adds weight.

Knew a guy who was fond oftelling everyone that sealing the ends of the deer hair with heat would keep the fly floating. Wonder if he ruined as many as I did before he gave that one up.

And, no, RainEx will not help any of your flies float better.

Buddy

[HideHunter]

Now - there's a tip I'm going to try. I used to love the Dahlberg Diver - until I discovered the Stealth Bomber. I love a hair bug - I even enjoy tying a few - but I hate fooling with them when I'm fishing.

Thanks Buddy.

[Gemrod]

Yes it works. Buddy introuduced me to the silicon water guard at Wal-Mart. Says
SILICONE WATER-GUARD in a brown strip angled across the front of the spray can, has an orange cap and says on top of the can cap "highest performance possible - scores 100 with a single application. Spray it into a container to form a pool of liquid and soak the flys. I haven't yet....but that is what I soaked a thread furled leader in....and sent it to Harleybob...actually it got to him through a swap...but he said he and his son fished a raging river for 5 hours and the leader floated all day long.

Must be good stuff and thank you Mr. Buddy Sanders for that tip.

Jim

[rrhyne56]

I second the WaterShed. It's been good to me.

[Ron Mason]

When they get soggy they fish more like a slider, which can be a good thing. I like it when they run right in the film and push a bunch of water over themselves. They don't really pop at that point but deadly none the less.

[Buddy Sanders]

Ron brings up a good point.

If you don't use some kind of floatant on your spun hair bugs, eventually they will absorb water.

They won't usually sink, the materials are still positively bouyant enough to float the hook if all you do every few casts is squeeze the water out of it with your fingers.

They will behave differently on the water. Some bass fishermen really like that action. The bug will make a completely different sound, more of a sloosh than a pop, and at times it can be deadly. Late evening largemouth seem to really like it.

You have to decide for yourself. What I do is waterproof all of mine so they float the same from first cast to last. I have other topwater flies that will give me a similar action to a waterlogged hair bug.

You can just treat some of them, and leave some untreated. If you decide to do this, make sure to tie in a tell so that you'll know which is which on the water.

No one topwater fly will work for bass under all conditions. That's part of what makes it fun. You want foam bodies, poppers, sliders, balsa bodies, hair bodies, frogs, ball heads, different tails, things like gurglers and crease flies. All are effecitive fished properly under the right conditions.

Tying a few, or a few dozens, of each of these will also use up all that wasteful and expensive spare time we all have so much of .

Buddy