popper misses

Fishing Warm water Forum
1

Sun evening at dark and after I was throwing a popper ( 1/2 inch apx 1x hook)

I got a hit about every third cast but only hooked two and one of those was foul hooked ( under mouth ). This went on for about 20 mins and the skeeters goot too bad plus it was very dark. I had been catching gills that day and maybe the popper was to big for them but I don’t get gills at dark. SOOOO…

It was very hard to see but I’m not usually that bad. Do bass ever smack the popper with their tails or bodies and not take it. If not I’d like some advice to correct my mistakes.

OK O’ WISE BOADERS >>>> speak on >>>>

2

I am willing to be corrected on this, but my philosophy on topwater is “wait for the weight”. Don’t try to set the hook until you feel the weight of the fish.
Another problem is that fish do strike rather than take. Again, wait for the weight. If you don’t feel a fish, don’t move. After striking it, (to stun it?) they will often come back and take it.

Hope this helps.

Lux

3

I have seen this many times in the past. I am not sure exactly why fish do this, but I have some theories.

Theory 1 - Could the fish be trying to just smack the fly with it’s fin. I think in this case, they may not know exactly what your popper is, but they think it is something they want to eat. So they go up to it and smack the stuffing out of it and see if they can kill it BEFORE eating it.

Theory 2 - The popper is just to large for the fish to eat. I have seen this MANY time with bluegill!!! They can be so agressive at times that they will try to eat ANYTHING!!! If the fly is too large all they are doing is hitting the side of the fly and not getting it into their little mouths.

Theory 3 - Fish have no eye lids, and the time right at dusk, I think, is hard for them to see well. My reasoning about this is simple. If doing night fishing, your eyes have adjusted to the natural light (night vision,) and your turn on a light and shine it into your eyes. How long does it take for you to get your night vision back? For most people I have seen and been around, they would say it takes a LONG time, sometimes in the range of 30 minutes to an hour!!! With this in mind, the fish’s eyes having been looking into a bright light ALL day with NO eyelids to help them. During the last 30 minutes of light, they may be having a really tough time seeing flies do to the fact that they are trying to have their eyes adjust for the upcoming night time.

With all of that in mind, in the last 30 minutes of light, I find fish can feel, smell, and hear food a lot better than they can see it. With fly poppers, they can hear it, but they have trouble seeing it. Therefore, you have a lot of “off center” hits on them during this time.

I think theory 3 may be the most accurate myself. This comes from my old rod and winch days of bass fishing. During the last bits of light, when the wind calms and the water settles, I would always reach for a nice buzz bait. The buzz bait is a spinner bait with a special spinner that claps the water when retreived. You simply casted the lure and reeled fast enough to keep the lure on top of the water. To me, the noise it made on the water gave the bass something to key in on and made their “accuracy” of finding the bait ten fold!!! I have talked with a lot of people in my time, and in the last 30 minutes of daylight I was not alone in my lure selection.

With a fly popper, a fish doesn’t have the constant noise being made to help the key in on the actuall flies location.

With all of this being said, take heart in the fact that you are not alone!!! Here are a few thing I have tried and have found to work!

  1. Move the popper in a little faster retreive trying to actually move the popper as little as possible. I know this sounds weird, but all you want to do is to make the popper work with as little line strip as you can use. I have found that using the rod tip instead of line stripping to make the popper work is rather effective!!! You can use a 1 inch pop of the rod tip to create the same amount of “pop” as you could from strippin in 6 inches of line to do the same thing!

  2. You could use a slightly smaller sized popper. Or, if you make your own poppers, try to make on with a large mouth end and tapering the body very quickly to the hook. Make the body look more like a triangle as compared an oval shape with a flat mouth.

  3. Try using a double fly configuration! Use a surface popper with a small clouser under it about 12 - 14 inches! This is great if you tie you own flies! Make the clouser about the same length as your popper, maybe even a little shorter. Use very little weight on the clouser, just enough to get it down without draggin on the popper. Also, having a clouser the same color combo as the popper works wonders!!!

These are just my thoughts, so please be if anyone out there thinks my theories wrong, please let us know!!! I am not a scientist, just a person that loves to fish!

Sincerely,

Reg

4

Only thing I can think to add for missed popper takes beyond too big of a hook for little bream is that I may have too small of a hook gap for the bream to be hooked. If the popper is too large for smaller bream, I would use a smaller popper. If the hook gap is too small, I would use a larger hook or a smaller popper body.

Or the bream just grabs a part of the fly material (like a rubber leg or tail) and quickly swims off with it before other bream can get it without a solid take or bite (the whole fly is not in the mouth of the bream). This might be why some bream are foul hooked. For this problem, I don’t know of a cure. Just the nature of the beast .

Sometimes bream are called smackers because they smack the fly off the surface when they bite. Never heard of or seen bream using their tail to slap the fly. After I cast the popper, I just give it a short line strip and let it sit. Sometimes the bites are very light (like a sip) instead of a loud smack.

I agree that sometimes waiting for the weight of the bream on the popper is good but I would be careful because if the bream have the popper too long, they could spit it out. Slack line has lost me bream also. Sometimes I have even had bream on a solid bite, good hook set, and with a tight line, and still have had them somehow work the hook loose and spit the fly. Stuff happens . Good luck.

Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL

“Flip a fly”

5

I agree with lux…wait for the weight! It is a fine line as Robert Mc says, but I find that “feeling” the fish, then just raising the rod, NOT aggressively “setting” the hook, works for me.
Mike

6

Try everything. Sooner or later something may work.

MOst of the time I think it is small gill hitting the legs and feathers. They are to small to take the whole bug.

I leaveit setting ther and hope a bigger fish is attracted by all the noise.

Rick

7

The 'wait for the weigh’t concept is what i’ve been successful with in the past. They seem to hook themselves. That is why these hits with no weight were so odd. I’ve not done too much top water at night , so this post.

I was specifically after bass and had been taught that gills are not that active after dark, The two I hooked were bass (~1lb). I like the dropper idea and have used it very successfully this year. They almost always take the dropper (PTN’s size 10-12). I think the popper attracts and the nymph is just too good to pass up.

All responses help my knowlege base, thanks folks.