Small Poppers - I'm Done With Them

[Baron]

Tom the Gurgler sounds great but they're a bit expensive. Im afraid they may cause me to get more Bass than the Bluegills that I'm after. What size do you tie.I understand the chewed up fly issue but they do tend to swallow them more.
I will be flattening barbs more and more from here on in. Not just because of the fish either. On Saturday I hooked the Anchor rode twice and had a heck of a time rescuing the flies.

Dave_W, I can understand how handy those flies are around sunnies. Do you use them for Perch as well. Are you bothered with by-catch, i.e. bass and other?
These flies are also cute and unique.

 

[Dave_W]

Baron wrote:
Do you use them for Perch as well. Are you bothered with by-catch, i.e. bass and other?

Yes and no.

 

[tomgamber]

Baron wrote:
Tom the Gurgler sounds great but they're a bit expensive. Im afraid they may cause me to get more Bass than the Bluegills that I'm after. What size do you tie.I understand the chewed up fly issue but they do tend to swallow them more.
I will be flattening barbs more and more from here on in. Not just because of the fish either. On Saturday I hooked the Anchor rode twice and had a heck of a time rescuing the flies.

Dave_W, I can understand how handy those flies are around sunnies. Do you use them for Perch as well. Are you bothered with by-catch, i.e. bass and other?
These flies are also cute and unique.

sorry if i wasn't clear. I use the gurgler for bass lthough i guess you could tie one small enough for bluegill. But as easy to tie as a foam spider is, it doesn't make sense to me. Gurglers are thin foam, hackle and krystal flash. also cheap to tie. mine look a lot like this. here's a simple foam spider as well. you can literally buy a kit if you want.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Big +1 on gurglers!

A lady working at an Orvis store in Naples, FL turned me on to them over 20 years ago. I went out and did very well catching small snook, mangrove snappers, and jacks. They've become my go-to topwater fly. They catch everything, including panfish. I tie a version on an octopus hook that I use on small warmwater streams. It catches bass, rock bass, sunfish, etc.

I've eliminated the hackle from mine, though. Cactus chenille or UV dubbing in a loop work just as well. No hackle makes them tie faster and fish more durably. My buddy caught about 3 dozen smallies on a single gurgler one summer day fishing a creek. The foam was torn to shreds!

They are kinda like the wooly buggers of topwater for me.

 

[Baron]

Beautifully simple. Clean. What size do you normally tie?

 

[Baron]

Hey I'm hoping to get a couple of you to tell us how you set up your Panfish rigs. I thought that Pickerel would''ve been a bigger concern than I'm hearing. So, Since I'm deliberately fishing for panfish and also hoping for Pickerel I and wondering if I could use an old broken back 4x leader which is back to about 50" now and use 3' of 20lb mono or floro for the tippet? Or maybe go with a new 4x leader and 8" 1x or 2x. Would something like that give me some bite protection?

The pickerel I butchered the other night was full of eggs and had a nice perch in there as well.

 

[Baron]

Dave I found those Hooks at Merrick Tackle.

 

[greenghost]

Dave,

I have used small poppers (6-8) for many years. I go that small because many of the streams I fish are smaller and the bass, while plentiful, rarely approach 15". Plus I enjoy taking panfish on top also.

Yes, many fish take deep, but severe bleeding is rare for me.

LONG needlenose pliers are indispensable. You can reach deeper with the elongated jaw. Simple grab the bend of the hook, push back toward the gullet, and if you're using barbless it comes out 9 times out of 10.

Has worked for me well over 40 years.

Schrec

 

[Baron]

Shrec,
That is what I do also. I do like the idea of using long shank hooks though. Long shank but small hook-size flies are hard to find and I asking a friend to tie some for me.

 

[Baron]

DaveW,
I have a young soldier home from afar for now anyway, friend of my son. He is going to try tying me some small panfish flies styled after the ones you pictured above.
Are there any special hints or instructions that you might share to help put him onto the correct path. I really like the briefness of your style as well as the shank size and so forth. I don't know the terms but I thinks dubbing, feathers and anything else come to mind more.