Of course your kids could do better, they probably had someone younger than your kids in a third world country in forced child labor building those - ha. Couldn’t help myself either.
Onto the main topic of using poppers. As a young guy fishing in stocked ponds years ago, I caught my first rainbow on a small bluegill type popper with rubber legs and a feather tail. Big bug on the surface and bang!
Now browns aren’t easily caught, they are smart, Gary Borger said in one of his presentations that they have an IQ of about 6. By the way carp have an IQ of 12, but that story is for another topic. So the browns are smarter than brookies, but not smarter than you are. Go give them the business with the poppers, but your approach is probably more important than your fly of choice. Don’t cast your shadow on the water, don’t put yourself up high so that your silhouette will be easily seen. Be stealthy with your approach by not yelling to your buddy: “The big one is OVER HERE!”. You get the idea, now go give 'em the business and tell us how you did. Good luck.