Some of you know I’ve been working on some balsa topwater flies. I was asked to post a few pictures, so here they are:
Buddy
Hi Buddy, the artist in you is showing, very nicely done.
What sizes are the small squarish ones, are they bluegill size like a #12?
Thanks and regards,
Gandolf
Buddy,
Those are nice! Have you had a chance to fish them?
Very Very well done
Sweet ties!
Did you hand make the bodies.
Nice job. If you don’t mind a question, how are you painting them and what kind of paint are you using? I’m guessing from the looks of them you’re spraying an enamel.
Thanks Buddy, Good timing 
I’m doing some cork poppers and sneaky petes for the club raffle
The base coats of paint are on and today is the day to decorate
I’ve been looking for ideas… didn’t have to go too far
How did you do the splatter pattern on the smallmouth?
So far mine have an epoxy base and two coats of Testors
here’s some more poppers that caught my eye
That looks more my speed, no air brush 
Gandolf,
The little blockheads are made on size 8 kink shank hooks, bluegill size for me. The balsa for them came from a 1/4 X 1/4 inch square strip.
Tyronefly,
Haven’t fish any of this batch yet. Even down here in Arizona topwater time doesn’t start until April at best, usually May.
FlyfishDog,
I used a couple of different methods to make this batch. Some of them I carved with a dremel, just glued the block of balsa onto the hook and hten shaped it with a sanding drum. Some of them I preformed the basic shape on a lathe, then finished the bodies on the hook. The little blockheads I just cut to shape in a mitre box (I did drill them crosswise and inserted a toothpick to make the raised eyes).
Greybeard,
These were all painted with acrylic ‘hobby’ paints like you can get at WalMart or any craft store. Some I airbrushed, the ones with the scale pattern backs, the rest I did by hand.
Dudley,
The pattern on the smallmouth was done with a stippling/stencil brush. These have a round crosssection and a flat face. You use these by pressing them into the work, not brushing across it. It takes a little bit of practice to get this to work right. What I did was dip the end of the brush into the paint then pressed it into a paper towel to dry it a bit, then gently stippled the paint onto the bait. For the smallmouth, I used a buff base coat (white mixed with a bit of yellow) then stipled on brown and then olive over it.
I put a coat of clear acrylic over all once the coloring was done, added a finish coat of ‘sparkle glaze’ (clear acrylic with a bit of gliter already in it), and finished the whole thing with a top coat of epoxy.
Took a bit longer than just airbrushing would, but I’m happy with the results.
The first one here was done by hand, the second with the airbrush.
Buddy
Thanks Buddy
I make and fish a lot of topwaters but very rarely bother to paint them.
Since these are for a raffle, I’m going beyond my comfort zone
I also made some smaller baits that I’ll use this summer for the smallmouth in Colorado. Sometimes they like a little popper. These are long and narrow, with over cupped faces to catch as much water as they can.
I had to take another picture of these. Lost it yesterday in the process of moving/editing.
Buddy
Where do you find kink shank hooks and if you can’t find them what other kind of hooks can you use…Innterested in making some for panfish
Raiderhunter,
Mustad makes a kink shank hook especially for poppers. The #33903, they come in sizes from 2 down to size 12 (around $8/100 or there abouts). I’ve seen some from another brand, but I don’t remember which one, maybe Daiichi.
I also use plain old aberdeen hooks in a lot of the smaller ones. I’ve learned to bend a bit of a kink in them so they won’t twist, but I’m anal about that. Any hook will work just fine. All that’s required is that the there is enough bouyancy in the head to float the hook and dressing and the hook shank is long enough for the body with space left to tie on the tail dressing.
Bending a kink in the hooks is probably not needed if you thread wrap the shanks and then glue them in with epoxy.
Buddy
I looked on Angler’s Workshop, Hook & Hackle, and JS Stockard for Mustad kink shank popper hooks either #33903 or CK52S and the smallest they had was 8 or 10. Does anyone know where else I should look?
www.captainhookswarehouse.com is where I get mine from.
http://www.captainhookswarehouse.com/index.cfm?page=detail&hookid=36&view=1
$5.40 - $5.90 PER 100