Deer hair poppers

[hbgbswanson]

I'm not great at it, but I enjoy it. I need to get some of the old style razor blades as I struggle most with trimming. Anxious to try these out. I definitely need some longer shanked hooks for the pencil style...and maybe some eyes. Any criticism/advice?

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[The_Sasquatch]

Way better than my recent attempts. I gave up for the week, and I'll be buying a few Gaines Poppers haha!

I think I'm fishing the Swattie w/ you on Saturday by the way.

 

[hbgbswanson]

The_Sasquatch wrote:
Way better than my recent attempts. I gave up for the week, and I'll be buying a few Gaines Poppers haha!

I think I'm fishing the Swattie w/ you on Saturday by the way.

Yes sir! Looking forward to meeting you.

Packing seems to be the key, I don't have a packing tool...but have a set of tongs that came with an ice bucket that works quite nicely.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Hmm good idea with the tongs! Packing is my issue, BUT I only attempted to tie my first popper on Monday night. Do you dye your hair, or buy the different colors?

RickinPA told me to look up spinning deer hair on youtube. I forget the guy's name, but in the video he took a double edge razor blade and just bent it to the shape he desired. It was pretty slick.

I'm just gonna focus on big bucktail streamers for Saturday, mostly in white and chartreuse. Those, I can tie!

 

[hbgbswanson]

I buy, it's not that expensive 3 or 4 bucks per color. I just don't want to deal with the mess and honestly I seem to barely have enough time to tie.

Ken Bohannon maybe? He's pretty awesome at it.

I'll be underneath a lot too...I have a ton of clousers at my disposal...I just was bored last night.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I did the float w/ Tim Robinsin a few weeks ago, there are definitely some pockets of water that I put poppers on! I'm thinking of taking two rods, one armed w/ a popper so that I don't have to keep changing out between a popper and streamer.

 

[hbgbswanson]

That's a great idea, unfortunately with the new kayak I struggle enough with one rod, the paddle, camera, & anchor!

 

[ryguyfi]

If you don't like deer hair then just use foam. I've been tying some poppers with foam sheets recently. Just cut a long thin strip of foam and wrap it until you get the desired shape you want, then cut 2 pieces of foam in a triangle with the 2 long sides having a bit of a convex curve to them. Tie it in in segments. Add tail, legs, etc to suit. Pretty easy IMO.

 

[goodfortune]

You can use the narrow end of ball point pen (with the ink tube removed) to pack your hair...works pretty well.

BTW - Nice work on the poppers

 

[McSneek]

Nice poppers. Your ice bucket tongs seem to function pretty well as a hair packer. I believe there is a Youtube video of either Kelly Galloup or maybe it's Charlie Craven tying Galloup's Zoo Cougar. Watch him trim the head into shape. He uses the old fashioned razor balde and puts a bend into it while he's holding it. Really shapes things nicely.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Ryan I was with you until the cutting triangles and crap. Please show pictures for those of us (me) with poor reading comprehension. I have some foam laying around, and I THINK your method sounds easy.

 

[hbgbswanson]

Great video McSneek that's for pointing me there.

This may be a dumb question but where do you buy that style razorblade...drug store, hardware store maybe?

**was a dumb question CVS had them...I see blood in my future.

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

 

[ryguyfi]

Basically if you cut regular triangles then they don't wrap completely around the hook and there's a gap on the sides. So I cut the 2 sides with a bit of an arch outward to help fill in the gap. (great artwork on a stickynote, the triangle is just for reference to show the actual cut)


Here's my finished popper I posted a little while back. Not focused well, but you the the idea.

 

[ryguyfi]

The stuff on the back of that popper is weird. I think it said "body hair" on the package and found it in a sale rack. It's supposed to just be wrapped around the hook as a body material, but I found that when it's stripped it lengthens out like a frogs legs, and then goes back to being curled up. Looks like crap on the vise, but looks awesome in the water.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Okay I got you. Thanks man! I'll still keep playing w/ deer hair 'cause its kind of fun, but will also use foam for quick, easy poppers.