I was reading a fly fishing publication from the United Kingdom, and there was an article in it about using poppers (they looked like small bass poppers) for trout.
Has anyone ever tried this? If so, what kind of results did you get?
Cheers,
Andrew
I don’t know about little poppers but we use really big poppers at night for browns. The idea is to fool big browns into thinking it’s a nice mouse or frog. Deer hair frog poppers in #2 hook size work well. Also we tie big furry muddlers in #2. You start by slapping them down on the water. Really slapping them hard with a big splash. This is all done about 10 or 15 feet in front of you. You then strip them in a little with a twitching motion (mouse) or a jerky motion (frog). If there is a brown there he will hit it like a freight train. Literally sounds like someone threw a big rock into the water. You are then in for the time of your life with a 22" brown on your line in the middle of the night. Best times are moonless nights in July or August when it’s hot and muggy and there are no mega hatches left to distract the big boys. Sleep during the day and don’t even bother thinking about serious fishing until 10 PM.
A couple weeks ago I submitted a popper dedicated to the creator of the pattern, Sam Blevins, and the name of it was, “Sam’s One Bug”.
This was created for bluegill, bass, etc.
One day last fall while trout fishing a local river here I noticed a young couple with the cutest little girl fishing from the bank and they had a cooler and were trying to catch a mess of bluegill to take home and not having much success. I put Sam’s One Bug on and started catching bluegill and giving them to their daugther who would take them to the cooler. She would just squeal and carry on everytime I would catch one and she was a joy to watch. As the evening progressed and the sun went down, the young couple thanked me for the mess of fish and they left. I kept on fishing the One Bug and had 2 nice rainbow jump all over it! After that, is when I decided that Sam’s One Bug would be a great strike indicator since it did have a hook in it and some trout seemed to like it. I will use it more this season and see if more trout like it.
My father told me forty years ago that you can not catch a trout on a popper.
I’ve been tring to prove him wrong ever since
So far he is right 
i saw a girl on TV catch a rainbow on a popper she tied made of a foam ear plug. this was last summer that i saw the show. it can be done
If you fished this fly or similar poppers during the Salmonfly hatch…I can guarantee you would catch trout 8)
Think dragonflies.
This is actually a “half-pounder” steelhead, although the adults ate em too. The good thing was the fly was too big for the little fish to eat.
I have caught numerous Rainbow Trout on Bass poppers in lakes while fishing for Smallmouth.
Seems the Rainbows like an agressively worked popper sometimes.
The last one, a little 12 inch fish, chased the bug for five feet, missing it three times before finally taking it.
Each time this has happened, I’ve been really working the popper hard and fast.
I guess you could try targeting the trout with smaller poppers, but the smallmouth would still hit them, and if there are smallmouth, why bother with trout?
Good Luck!
Buddy
I’ve caught stocker rainbows on a small popper in a pond. Not sure how much success you’d have on your nearest spring creek.
I agree with gutbomb. I’m not sure wild, native trout would react that much to a small bass popper as it doesn’t seem to imitate the natural insects they are used to seeing. Stockers from a pond may be a different story.
Bobinmich’s strategies sound like a blast though. Bob, do you do this on stillwater or rivers. If on the rivers, are you stripping/popping them up or downstream? Interesting thread, BTW.
I assume, since they are not hatchery trout, wild trout do not eat grasshoppers and crickets if they should happen to jump into the stream. :roll:
Yeah, and wild trout do not eat worms since they do not look like the natural insects they are used to seeing. :roll: :roll:
p.s. I have also seen wild trout wipe their mouths on mossy rocks after eating.
Wild One,
We usually fish downstream because it is tough to wade upstream at night. Medium to large rivers - like the AuSable South, North, and Main, and the big water south of Mio.
Browns cruise all over at night. Wade slowly down stream and fish all holes, especially big holes close to shore. You will loose some tackle. Helps to know the river really well. A heavy (6lb.) short leader w/o a tippet works. You will recover more tackle and land more fish. Use a headlight or you can’t see to land the fish.
Browns like to fight down a dirty so you won’t have to turn them like you do steelhead. They tend to stay. A brown in the teens is a big fish - into the 20’s they are huge especially in a small stream in pitch black.
I am not really good at this like some people I know and the river get’s awfully wide and deep after dark. Fish with someone if you can. Wade close and take turns on holes. It is not nearly as spooky with company. But it is a blast if you want really big fish. You won’t believe how big the nightime browns are in your favorite little stretch of water. Rarely will they be smaller that 14-16 inches.
Great post!
I too didn’t think it was possible, till I was fishing one of my favorite brown trout rivers here in Montana, tied on a size 8 balsa poppper and proceeded to catch 2 nice browns. It was astonishing. In broad daylight, nonetheless!
It was great fun, and I plan to do it again this year.
RMB
While I don’t routinely fish poppers for trout in fresh water, I do use them for salmon and sea-run cutthroat along the beaches of Puget Sound. The Miyawaki Beach Popper and versions of Jack Gartside’s Gurgler are favorites and highly effective. For that matter, under the right water conditions, waking flies, some of which are little more than poppers or sliders, are deadly for steelhead, and the Pollywog is a favorite for spawning-bound coho.