I’ve been making some balsa bodies bass/pike topwaters this winter. I’ve posted some of them here.
A couple of days ago I had an idea.
I do feather inlays all the time on rod blanks/reel seats/rod tubes…
Why not try using feather inlays to ‘color’ a popper body?
The technique still needs some fine tuning, but all of these will fish, and they look kind of cool. Plus, it’s not hard to do. (I know the fish certainly don’t care, but I like them prettty most times.)
What do you guys think?
Buddy
BUDDY…I adore those bugs like that…simply adore them. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw these babies…BRAVO ZULU!!!
My favorite is the bottom row, left fly. But I love all of them. What an ingenious idea…dang I am gonna have to try that too…hehehe.
Those are pretty cool. I’d love to know how you do that. An article maybe?
What awesome poppers, what a clever ideal to doing a inlay like that.
After seeing that I would never use paint again.
Great looking poppers Buddy, you out did yourself
Wow!!!
Now that’s the reason I am part of this group…never woulda crossed my feeble little cranium to do that. Bravissimo!!
BUddy.
One of the most original ideas to come along in quite a while and they look absolutely terrific! Much better than any paint job I’ve ever seen on a popper. You should consider writting an article for Fly Tyer Magazine as they are always on the lookout for articles with original and creative fly tying ideas. Just a thougth…
Jim Smith
Those are absolutely fantastic. How long does it take you to do them?
Dave
Wow… just wow…
Very well done Buddy! I’ve used feathers as ‘paint brushes’ to get different paint effects but thats I think we will all agree is truly innovative!
Never seen anything like it. Very, very nice. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome Buddy, you’ve got a winner there and i hope that is an original idea. Pure genius. I’m getting ideas for a balsa bodied ‘dying minnow’ pattern…thank you.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
Very nice looking poppers.
recently I saw a post and the tyer was using a small spray gun with great results but…DUDE!!! your flys are killer…you have raised the bar to the next level…seems like a instant classic on FOTW IMO…please say that its simple to do…I dont even use poppers but I am ready now…you’re a genius…thanks for the post
Buddy,
I’m thinking there must be some bijou in your blood.
Those are Sick, I mean that in a Cow-a-bunga way. They strike me as Squamata members, with plate 3 & 4 taking the cake. Especially # 4, that thing looks like it’s going to slither away.
Dave
All I can say is wow. I am totally speechless and can only say wow.
They are just too pretty to fish but I bet the bluegill and bass will be fighting each other to be first to get to one of those.
Beautiful work.
Jeff
I cant stop looking at them…I agree that #4 spins my gyro…back to the pics…
WOW!!! I would love to have one to put on display! Would you make one to sell like the one in pic #4?
They look stunning Buddy. The artist in you is showing again! 
Thanks for all the nice comments.
You are looking at the first tries here, and it’s still a concept more than a finished procedure. These are over white painted balsa, the feathers are applied with clear acrylic, and the top coat is epoxy (Flex Coat Rod wrap finish). I want to try it on foam ‘dremel bug’ bodies next. And I want to try it with an all acrylic finish. These have never been fished, and I don’t know yet how they will function in the water (should be fine, but I just haven’t been able to get them to water yet…just finished them thursday night)
I’ll try to answer all the questions in order:
Tailing loop asked how it’s done and suggested an article on it.
First you need a smooth body to work with. I made these from balsa, but soft or ‘flip flop’ foam, the ready made hard foam bodies, or even cork should work. I used several types of feathers, just to see how they would look. Most are hackle or flank feathers.
I apply the feathers with a cheap plastic handle ‘kids hobby brush’ ($4.95/144 at Hobby Lobby) and clear acrylic (any craft store-I use gloss, about $1.99 for a bottle). Some guys do it on rod blanks with color preserver (some of which is basically a clear acrylic) and some just use water. Water has never worked well for me, so I use the acrylic. I start from the tail and bottom and work to the front and top. The ‘last’ feathers on most of these are the cheeks…but I’m still playing with the order of application. Probably depends on how you want it to look. Whatever works.
I brush each feather into place. I put the feathers on one after another without any ‘cure time’ in between. I intentionally let the feathers hang over the ends of the body. Once I’m done, I set them aside to dry. Once dry, about ten minutes or so, I trim the excess feathers. I used my fly tying scissors for this, but a razor blade or exacto knife may work better. Don’t know that yet.
Final step is the top coat. The feathers as they are after they are applied are not smooth, and I want the body smooth. I used Epoxy for these, applying it with a brush and them letting them turn overnight.
As far as an article about this or a FOTW, it’s a bit early for that. I still have a bit to learn about this technique. I’m sure I can get these looking much beter with time and practice, and I know that I’m going to prefer this over painting from now on.
James Smith suggested an article in Fly Tyer. I know how many unsolicited articles such publications recieve. And, as I stated above, I’m still working on this, and I’m not ready to put something in a publication and then find out a couple of weeks later that I have a better way… I imagine that someone else will see this and pick up on it, and it will eventually get out to the guys who want to learn it. Once I get it more polished, and if I’m asked, Ill try then.
Dave Potts wanted to know how long it took. Pretty quick, really. Took me longer to get the balsa bodies shaped and painted than it did any of the other steps. I applied all of the feather inlays to five of these in a little over an hour. The finish coat took overnght on the turner.
MontanaMoose. I have no clue if this is a truly ‘original’ idea. I doubt there are many such in fly tying. I know I’ve not seen it done, but I live in Southern Arizona. Not really a hot bed of fly tying inovation around here. But it doesn’t matter to me. I enjoyed doing it and I really like how the bodies came out. Many tyers who aren’t skilled with a paint brush could do this and come up with some awesome looking baits.
Bonfishwhisper wanted to know if it’s easy to do. I think it is. The feathers lay onto the surface nicely, and if you don’t like how it lays, you can move it around with the brush until you do. As long as the acrylic is still wet, you can pull them off and reapply until you like the effect. For anyone whos done a feathr inlay on a rod blank, this is just as easy. You’ll just have to play with the different featehrs until you get someidea of how they will work together and how you want it to look. That should be the fun part.
And for Dave E. Thanks for the bodies. It was a nice bonus with my hooks. At least I didn’t have to turn these first. Are you sure about just plain old white over white?
What I’m hoping is that some of you guys will get into this and share your efforts and procedures so we can all learn to do it if we want.
Here’s a couple of closer views of one of the baits.
Thanks,
Buddy
p.s; these are on size 1/0 33903 hooks. The smallest of these is about 6 inches to the tip of the tail…B.S.
