Pencil Poppers - Soft Bodies

[Dave_W]

Pencil poppers have long been a favorite of mine, especially for smallmouth bass. In the past, I made most of my PPs using the pre-made bodies that came in hard plastic and into which you glued a long shanked hook via a groove. These bodies worked fine, however they came with a flat front and I had to take a Dremel tool to "cup" the face of the popper as I feel a concave face produces a better action. A bigger shortcoming of the hard bodies was that they were fragile: if you bounced your backcast off a rock or bridge piling, the popper body would typically shatter.

Recently, I was delighted to discover a soft foam pencil popper body made by Wapsi Company. You still have to glue to hook into the body, but they already come with the cupped face and the soft foam takes acrylic paint fairly easily. The bodies are a bit wider in diameter than the old had body versions (I like 'em slender) however I'll take this minor drawback in exchange for the durable soft body.

If you have always used hard bodied pencil poppers, these might be worth a try. The pic below shows a couple I tied up recently.

 

[J55tyger88]

Nice Dave, those are sweet! I know what you mean about the hard foam bodies being brittle. Ive fished some diver style foam bodies and liked them, so ill be picking up some up.

 

[sandfly]

get some cork perch floats and cut at an angle makes 2 poppers each

 

[1hook]

Dave check out the surface seducer popper bodies. They are pretty sweet and are a soft foam - very durable as well.

They have become my go to for bass. Not sure if they make a pencil body.