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2nd popper

My 2nd popper, hackle getting little better. my wife painted this to. What can I use that's better than marabou for popper's?

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Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on December 14, 2013 at 9:45pm: Okay thanks, Mark!

Comment by Mark Stine on December 14, 2013 at 9:32pm: Dave I think the "classic" dressing is several rooster hackles (saddle) with a collar of palmered saddle hackle. which is what you will normally get if you buy a popper in the store. What's nice about tying your own you can mix it up add some crystal flash or flashabou to whatever material you pick and the collar can be changed too cactus/ice chenille makes a pretty good one. I painted 28 poppers today three large pencil poppers in bass colors, 12 in gill colors and 12 glow in the dark pencil poppers all are going to be fish imitators and will get marabou tails with a palmered hackle(s) as a collar

Comment by carl hendrix on December 14, 2013 at 7:10pm: great looking popper! your wife did a great job painting to!!

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on December 14, 2013 at 6:43pm: SSSSSSSSSSSSSSUPER LOOKING BUG BUDDY.

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on December 14, 2013 at 6:36pm: Mark, being the popper man you are, what do you consider the "universal" dressing
for a popper?

Comment by Mark Stine on December 14, 2013 at 6:23pm: Nice popper! marabou is a good dressing for the tail. Generally I choose it if I am imitating something that swims, like a minnow. If I want to imitate a bug I will choose a different dressing like calf tail, buck tail, or saddle hackles (I use strung hackle when I use it on poppers to keep the cost low). I have even cut small patches of hair from zonker strips or used a short rabbit strip as a dressing. If I see a bunch of damsel/dragon flies in the area I would use the popper with some saddle hackle. If I can match the colors to what the gills are smackin I will do that first next I would go for the dark/light versus the time of day. That popper dropper can be Killer sometimes I get it tangled up though. I am working on some pencil poppers will post a pic when they are done.

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on December 14, 2013 at 5:48pm: David, I use gurgle pops almost exclusively, as opposed to poppers.
These are foam beetle-type poppers...you could call them "popping bugs."
I tie the dropper nymph to the bend of the gurgleRd' hook. This keeps the dropper from tangling, when tied in the usual way at the eye.
The secret is using a double clinch knot, aka, a Trilene knot, drawn tight. This holds the dropper fly back and away from the popping bug. 4# fluorocarbon its the way to go for the dropper.

Comment by Allen Morgan on December 14, 2013 at 4:33pm: David, I have done that. And yes, it does work. That tactic works with any fly the floats, and has enough floatation to suspend a nymph of some kind. My typical rig is a popper with a nymph dropper, a grasshopper with a nymph dropper, and in early Spring, a Deer-Hair Caddis with a Scud dropper.

I've also heard of have a smaller popper or Grasshopper, and bigger (not necessarily heavier) baitfish pattern as a dropper. Twitch it fairly fast. Other fish think the baitfish pattern is chasing the topwater bug. Depending on the other fish in the area, they may hit the bug (competing sunfish), or in the case of LMBs and other predators, the baitfish pattern.

Comment by David 'PcolaPaddler' on December 14, 2013 at 1:39pm: I have read that a popper with a subsurface fly on a dropper is a good tactic. I have only tried it once or twice, but plan to give it some more water time. The popper can be larger to attract bass and act as a strike indicator / float to keep the subsurface fly at a controlled depth.