I made it to the RRFF fly tying last night. I was shown how to make an incredibly easy popper out of an old flip flop. Yes sir, I think I am hooked. LOL

The flip flop fly! I've always heard that Central Texas fly fishing guide and legend Alvin Dedeaux was the inventor of the flip flop popper, but I imagine there were several others that had a similar idea at one point or another. Either way I'll give Alvin credit since he's such an awesome guy.

The flip flop fly morphed into what Alvin now calls a "reverse crease" fly. Basically it's a zonker strip surrounded by two pieces of foam. It's easier to make and tie but still has the intense pop that that flip flop fly is famous for.



Thanks for bringing this up, I forgot what a great fly this is!

What size foam are you using on that? It seems 2mm may be a bit thin. Think 3 mm would work better if you were tying it on a larger, #1-1/0 hook?

That's only 2mm foam, but it's a size eight B-10s, it works well, with the doubled foam head holding things up well. For a size 2 and up I use glued sheets of 2mm foam.

Gotcha. Thanks.

Tied some up on a size 2 hook with 3mm foam. Tried them out tonight and they move a ton of water, as advertised. Didn't catch anything, but I was impressed with them. That being said, are they supposed to float on their side? Both of mine do. May not matter since they move a lot of water, but I was just wondering. I am guessing it is going on its side because I tied it too tall and it is top heavy. I'll tie some more that are a bit shorter.

The flies that we were tying look more like this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=klhvICfD4oc

These were SO easy to tie!

You nailed the construction. As you alluded to, getting the proportions right will fix its orientation in the water. The zonker and hook's weight seem to help it ride tail down in the water and the head then has no choice but to stand up.

My only other suggestion is to tie in a bit of mono in the rear to keep the zonker from fouling the hook gap. It doesn't have to be much, but without it, the zonker likes to move into places it shouldn't.

That's a very solid looking panfish bug