Fly Candy

Tube popper streamers were primarily tied for larger saltwater species but have been great for bagging snotrockets with as well. Take a normal bottling cork. Drill a hole through the middle. Dremmel out the front to form a cup. Then tie on some Slinky blend towards the back of the tube 140 mm long lengths. Then palmer on a couple of Marabou hairline feathers then slide the tube over the front of the tube to butt up against the marabou. Fished with a floating line they work a treat.

Tail loop guards

I'm sure many of you either know this technique or even use it on your flies already,but Here's a handy tip to stop that long tail of Raccoon fur,Rabbit zonker, Arctic fox zonker from wrapping itself annoyingly around the hook.

Make a loop with some strong mono,I've used weed strimmer chord here and tie onto the back of the hook or tube like so.

Tie on your raccoon strip or any zonker strip for that matter directly on top of the Loops tie on point.

Here's a popper that was fashioned from that same rig. Click images for larger view.

Foam flatheads

Here's a great alternative to using cork or any other popper head for that matter. Using foam on your hook or tube is not new by any stretch of the imagination. Most of us have tied a Gartside gurgler or something similar. Well here's a foam head I use which is easy to construct and has just one tie in point at the front. I've shown its placement on a hook but I tie these onto tubes which I do now with all my poppers. Read here why!

This foam flathead moves a lot of water and depending on how wide you make it depends on how much noise and water you want it to make & move.

Step 1
Cut a piece of foam like this

Step 2
Fold it over itself

Step 3
Tie onto the front of the hook near the eye.I like to place a blob of super glue under it just to keep it in place while I tie it down. The back lip can be super glued together although I don't bother with it.

The Plipper

The Plipper was designed by Martin Joergenson, and is a real easy fly to tie on the tube. Depending on how long the piece of tube you are using, will depend on what fish you want to target. For this tutorial I have added my own spin on this great surface lure fly and would be great for all you Bass fly-fishermen out in the States & Summer Chub fly-fishermen in Europe.

Cut the tube to the desired length you want the fly to be and then tie on line along it.

Then wrap some pipe tube garland around it (I used Gold here). Tie secure.

Palmer on as many black Sclappen feathers it takes you to cover the tube.

Fold the foam to this shape. At the end of the bottom fold, punch a small hole in the end as this is where you will slide it over the tube.

Make four rubber legs and tie onto the side of the body when making the securing wraps of cotton to the tube.

I just added some character to this easy fly by drawing on some spots and adding some eyes but they aren’t necessary and either is the palmered Sclappen feathers…..especially if your tying it specifically as a pike fly. For Bass though, this needs the detail I’ve added.

Used over lily & weed pads one can place the hook mounting facing upwards to alleviate snagging or for slightly more open water have the hook mounting facing downwards.

Poppers(VI)

Here's a top tight arse top tip for those that use foam popper heads. If you see the construction they are just your normal EP foam popper heads with a split ring attaching the fly to it. Have been making some enquiries yesterday and most fly shops in the UK are selling 4 in a pack for £5,95...I don't know about you but that's f***ing highway robbery and more fool you if your that much of a tackle tart to part with your hard earned cash for these things. Your fishing for pike for Pete's sake!. These popper heads were'nt designed for snotrockets but for other species.

All you need is some wire, A split ring, 2 small beads,A cork and a terminal clip

Make a loop,slide the bead along he wire. Then push the wire through the cork and add the other bead. Make a loop and attach the slit ring to the terminal clip. Since taking these pics I have removed the swivel thus shortening it slightly.....well it wasn't needed anyway.

And there you have it.I stuck some eyes on for all you out there that like to see that kinda thing on a fly. Now that cost me less that 20 cents to make & is if not just as good as an EP foam popper head. I was able to cast these 30ft the other day no worries and thats all the distance you need to cast poppers anyway. So all you tackle tarts out there that go to your local tackle shop and pay for foam popper heads...yet still complain at the price of them, then maybe give these a try instead and turn any fly in your tackle box in to a surface lure when ever needed.

Poppers (v)

Hot of the vise from this week, 4 more poppers to be used out in Thailand for Snakeheads

Poppers (IV)

Using these corks as popper heads seems to have evoked mixed feelings in the pike fly-fishing fraternity these last few days,either here on PikeFFArticles or on some of the forums I have posted these poppers in. While many have praised the use of them, others have begged to differ. Questions have been asked whether they are too bulky to use as a popper head and would also be to heavy to cast. Poppers will always be more challenging to cast especially for a novice,but there is no need to cast these flies long distances.One needs to change his approach slightly for surface lures. The further away the popper is the harder it is to impart a decent action with it. If you keep your cast to around 12-15m one has much better control over the movement of the fly. Any further and you don't get the best out of the popper.

Snotrockets are unforgiving on your flies, and so why tie up elaborate weightless flies only for them to be mullard in 3 or 4 decent sized fish. I'm not prepared to spend my hard earned cash on ready made popper heads that cost an arm and a leg especially making the middle man richer in the process...and anyone that does.....well you need to re-access the way you fish for this species. Corks work just as good as any other product on the market. I don't claim to be an expert but with 16yrs experience in targeting these fish I feel I've earned the right to share my experiences with you all. My way is certainly not the right way, but it is another option which I like sharing with you and if it gets you trying other products on the market then all the better.

Anyway, with all poppers, you need a good popper hook. Wapsi produce hooks with a kink in the shank but unfortunately they are to small for pike poppers so I use a normal saltwater fly hook and build the cotton up in 3 ridges close to the hook eye like this. Drill a smallish hole through the cork... Place a liberal amount of Superglue around the cotton and then slide the cork head over the cotton. Leave for a minute and there you have it.There is no way in hell that cork head is coming off...or turn after a few fish.

Poppers (III)

So several of you have contacted me over the last couple of days with regards to what are the popper heads made from. Well they are just your average small bottling corks bought from your local supermarket. They weigh practically bugger all and are cheap as chips. I get 25 in a packet for Є1.50 which beats a pack of 4 Enrico Puglisi foam popper heads at Є4.25 from my local fly shop. They can be trimmed down quite easily with a sharp blade to suite the size hook you are using as well as cut grooves in the front of them for extra disturbance. They are also extremely durable if attached correctly. I'll show you how tomorrow with a small tutorial. Although I generally just paint mine black one could paint them any colour you desire. Not a bad tight arse top tip If I say so myself!

Poppers (II)

Poppers

There is no other form of fly-fishing for pike that gets my blood pumping than when I'm using poppers. My box is full of them at this time of the year and I don't even bother with other patterns, that is the addiction surface lure fishing has on me. If you want to catch bigger pike with poppers, you need bigger poppers and most of these are over 160mm long. You also need to have a lot of perseverance and expect plenty of frustration with mist hook ups, but nothing prepares you for the moment when that fish slams your popper from below and goes airborne. I'm literally drained by the time I get home in the evening after a full day of popping.

All these poppers though are off to Thailand in a few weeks to be used on Snakeheads. A species I haven't had the chance to target yet, even though I have fished for other species around the coast there.

I have used plenty of Eumer Raccoon & Fox fur on these as well as an array of different coloured Grizzly variant neck hackles with some Slinky and SF fibers thrown in as well.

I very rarely use eyes on my flies but as this is an order, All these poppers you will see over the next few days have rattle eyes epoxy'd on. It will be interesting to see how they fare against the Snakeheads.

Weed Guards

Looking for the perfect material for your weed guards, then look now further than your local gardening center for some weed strimmer cord. It comes in a variety of colours as well as a range of different sizes. I’ve been using Oregon 1,3 mm now for about a year on my poppers and gurgelbugs and have been very impressed with it. Its thick enough to allow your fly to pass under and over obstructions without getting snagged, and yet its subtle enough for it to allow easy hook ups once the pike has it in its jaws and there is now way in hell pike will cut through it with its teeth.

The Ballydoona Bomber

For all of you in the States & Canada that have never heard of the Ballydoona bomber, let alone fished with one, then you don’t know what you’ve been missing. It was the very 1^st fly I started fly fishing for pike with, and was designed by a chap called Alan Hanna from Ireland. Its main feature is an off set triangular foam head placed at the eye end of the hook. Anyway this is for all you tight arse pike fisherman out there that like to get creative with cheap ass products found from your local craft shop.

One can use foam from a block off course, which all fly shops will stock, but for a tenth of the price I will be using foam sheets 10 cents ea from my local craft shop.

Take sheets of foam and cut into 30mm wide strips

Then cut the strips into 50mm lengths. Glue these together and wait for it to set

Then cut through the foam blocks at 45 degrees like this. Trim all the edges also at 45’ angles to suite the size hook you are using.

I very rarely use eyes on my heads but for this I bought a meter of this double sided plastic wrapping paper with holographic balls on it and cut 2 out to use for eyes.

Here is the finished product. You don’t have to, but I like to coat my foam heads with some clear varnish just to give it a shiny finish especially with the holographic eyes I have used.

What you tie behind the foam head is entirely up to your own imagination. A longish strip of around 150mm of Zonker fur would suffice, but I also like to tie in plenty of flash and super stretch Floss onto mine as well. Here I have used a strip of artificial fur, a generous amount of Silver Tinsel flash, Gold fff flash, Green super stretch floss and two different coloured green Marabou feathers for hackles. Lastly I also cut 2 strips off the foam 2mm to use for legs.

Simple, easy & above all tight arse cheap to make. And don’t be fooled by what it looks like ……yes! - go ahead and laugh, but this is a killer fly & will catch you tons of fish.

Technique to fish this fly

I have found that the best way to get the most out of this fly is to fish it with a slow sinking intermediate line. Cast out and give the line a few seconds to start sinking. Then strip back with short sharp strips. The line draws the fly under the water but floats back to the surface. The deeper the line goes the longer you can keep the fly under the water bobbing up and down.

Here is Alan Hanna explaining how to tie an Al's Eel as well as some great footage of this fly through the water.

Big pike on the fly from Johnny Saunderson on Vimeo.