Adventures in Popper Making

The other day, while my wife and I were rambling around the Smokies, we made a stop in Townsend, Tennessee at the local fly shop where I intended to pick up some more material to tie streamers with. Of course, being a fly shop, I had to look around a little bit at all the different tying materials. I can honestly say I'm not much of a shopper at all, but put me in an outdoor store or a fly shop and it might take me a while to get out. In the course of looking around, I ran across a display of popper tying supplies. Tying my own bass and bream poppers is something that I have been meaning to learn how to do, and I figured there was no time like the present. Before it was all said and done, I had picked up enough material to tie several different colors of poppers.

My 2nd Attempt - After the Pink Popper Incident

Once we got home from Tennessee, I was anxious to give popper making a try. Up until this point, I had been buying all the poppers I fished with, and just about the only flies that I had ever tied to use in warm water had been the Triple Threat streamers that I used for smallmouth fishing. After doing a little Internet research and looking at the directions that came with the popper bodies I bought, I set out to give popper making a shot.

Yellow Popper

Right away, I was treated to some new experiences, such as the fingernail polish aisle in Wal-Mart. I had read on the Internet that clear fingernail polish with glitter worked well as a sealer for the finished poppers, and that Sharpie markers were handy to use to color the bodies. Armed with that knowledge, it was off to gather materials. I took my wife along with me for two reasons - number one, I wasn't sure I could even find the aisle with the fingernail polish, and two I figured that if she was with me it wouldn't raise as many eyebrows. She thought the whole thing was hilarious, and kept threatening to tell everyone that I was in Wal-Mart shopping for nail polish. Once that ordeal was over, it was off to the vise to give tying poppers a try.

Green Bug

The next thing I learned very quickly about tying poppers is that it takes Zap-A-Gap about .000002 seconds to bond my fingers to the foam popper bodies. After a few sticky situations, I started to get the hang of gluing the bodies on and keeping my fingers off. I also managed to eventually get my fingers all unstuck from each other and functioning again, but it was touch-and-go for a while.

Blue and White Popper

One last thing I figured out on my first attempt was that if I didn't give the marker enough time to dry, my white popper with a red face would turn into a pink popper with a red face with the first application of nail polish. I know that I've got long way to go with the learning curve on popper making, but it's fun taking on a new challenge. Now if I can just get my fingers unglued from this keyboard!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph