Kelkay,
those look great!!!!

Great job!

Thanks guys. I appreciate it. TCF please post a pic of your poppers. I don't hate my poppers now, just the way they were previously. If you had seen then, you would understand. The paint was all bubbled up on the yellow ones, and then the thin paint pen I used on the green ones left marks all over it. I just need to eliminate what doesn't work, and keep what does. I started tying flies in Jan. This is my second attempt at poppers. I can send a pic of my first one, it is a plain Jane yellow one, but I thought I did a good job on it.

Kelly

Looks like you kept after it and got the final result you were looking for. Those are lovely, just lovely. And don't worry too much about the number of legs you get in them, that is more for your sense of aesthetic than the fish who will murder those poppers if they are in a popper murdering mood!

Thanks Robin, that does make me feel better. I will post more pics later.

Kellkay,
Those are gorgeous. And they might even inspire me to try doing some poppers...

Thank you Gray. I have put feathers on two of them, not too happy with the results. When I get them all finished up, hopefully in a little while, I will post pics of the completed ones. I also will post another pic of other flies I've done lately.

Kelkay: Your poppers look great. I wish mine turned out as well. You can buy three foot long sticks of balsa wood at hobby stores and use them to form bodies with a little sandpaper. Paint till you are happy with them and then get some of the Devcon epoxy while in Walmart for about 2 bucks. I prefer the 2 ton, but you can use the 5 minute if you prefer. Using the epoxy takes a little while to get used to. After you get it mixed, cover the popper with the epoxy and grip the hook of the bug with a clothes pin so that you can turn it over as the epoxy sags. This will add a bit more durability to the bug. If you get some epoxy in the eye of the hook, don't worry about it for now. When thru, heat a bodkin and burn out any epoxy in the eye of the hook. If you don't get the mix correct then the epoxy will be permenantly tacky and the only fix that I know of is to simply cover the whole mess with Sally's Hard As Nails.

You can go nuts of this stuff if you like...I had a friend that would go on a hard body jag about every three or four years and we would get used to it. We would all spend about a month building poppers till we were all sick of them and then in about another three or four years we would do it again. Mike would even get out the air brush and fire up the compressor in the garage to paint them.

One year at Rendezvous, Walt spent three days building a dozen bluegill poppers in size 14 made out of balsa and each with 14 coats of paint. He spent three days to make a dozen of those precious flies. This fly tying Is a sickness I tell you.

It is a great hobby to play with when it is too hot to go fishing as long as you don't count the cost or the time.

Big Dale

Thanks Big Dale, sure sounds like a weekend job at least. I move slow as molasses....LOL. I appreciate all that you put into that post, it helps a lot.

Okay these were two of the best ones from today. I was running out of hackle, saddle hackle, and feathers for the poppers. The feathers I am using are left over from the bass fly tying kit, except the grizzly hackle, which I bought on clearance. Fly tying can be expensive, don't let anybody tell you any different! But it sure can be fun, and challenging at the same time.

awesome looking poppers bro!!!!

those look very nice & professional (bro)

Thanks for the compliment builderal, but I am a woman...no problem you had no idea. That is why badassbaits is laughing...cause he knows I'm a woman...so I guess it is sis....hehehe. It's all good...

Awsome Sis!!! I'm very impressed (and a little jealous).

Well thanks TCF. That was very nice of ya. Notice I just showed you the best two...that's cause the others weren't as good....hehehe. Now we gotta see how they fish soon!

I am curious for those who use epoxy...I have some 5 min I think...Devcon that I have been afraid to use so far. Does this type of epoxy stick in the hot summer heat outside say in 100 deg weather? I am just wondering because I am thinking of trying to do another type of popper, but not sure which coating I want to use. (I had a fly that I made at the beginning of my tying experience back in the winter...I cannot remember what I coated it with...but it was sticking in my tackle box in HOT weather.) It may of been the head cement, heck I can't remember. I have CRS syndrome at times.

What I would do is coat a test popper with some of that stuff, leave it in the car a few days and see what it does.

Good idea, man that would sure test the limits alright.

Kelkay, Those are some purdy poppers for sure and I know the time invested in one of those poppers truly makes them painful to lose That is why I like the ear plug foam popper. I can make 5 to 10 an hour and have done so at the last BVFF club meeting. I know that it's probably less artful and a more practical way to build a popper but it doesn't hurt much to lose one I have wondered what a coating of epoxy would do to the foam and will find out shortly . Keep up the good work Kel, its a good skill to know!

HLS, you have inspired ME with your poppers. That is what made me want to attempt them in the first place. I have plans to make your ear plug popper. I also saw a video on You Tube on ear plug poppers. I think I will have to go to the store and pick up some ear plugs. I always love seeing your flies. Let me know how the epoxy holds up for you! You are right about them being a painful fly to lose, because they are very time consuming. I think it is time for an ear plug popper now.....hehehe.

it appears that popper-mania has grasped many on this site, earlier this year I bought a bag of foam cylinders on eBay and have more than I can possibly use, so the first 3 people to send me a PM with address will get seven of the foam cylinders, they are 7/16" diameter and a hair over 1 1/2" long, sliced up they probably good for 3 poppers a piece...sooo party on....popper-pa-looza

PM SENT......hehehe.

YEAH I got number two position. I can hardly wait to get them! :-)

2 down...next pm gets the last ones

I have never had a problem with the epoxy getting sticky due to the Texas heat...and I have a black pickup. The only time I have had a problem with it being sticky is when I mix a little too much of the hardner in the mix. The Devcon 5 minute has been reported to yellow in time but not the 30 minute epoxy. It only takes about a minute longer for the 30 minute epoxy to reach the point that it no longer sags, so that is the kind I use the most. It is also kind of fun to put a couple of drops of lacquer or acrylic paint into the epoxy mixture to get a beautiful and very tough cover for your bug.

If you are going to try testing the epoxy in the Texas heat of the car then you might also try an experiment using Sallys Hard As Nails for the final coat.

I also bought one of those little 7 buck bottles of Loons Hard Head in clear and thin it with rubbing alcohol to use as a final coat. You also have to rotate this for a few minutes, but it makes a beautiful and hard final coat. I find using epoxy to be a pain in the butt, so I use the Loons Hard Head most often. It also makes a beautiful final coat for painted heads on streamers.

Both Loon Hard Head and the epoxy are best done using a fly turner while they are drying but they are expensive to buy or a pain in the butt to build. You can sometimes find a little 4 to 10 rpm motor at an electronics supply store, or modify one taken from a microwave or barbeque to build one. I suspect that others will chime in with their ideas on what has worked for them.

Big Dale

Thanks Brimbum. Yes I have already tried Sally's Hard As Nails on these last poppers I've made. The coat is awesome looking. Now I guess I need to try them in the hot vehicle...Well, I will try ONE...hate for all that hard work to go to waste...hehehe.

I do not have a fly turner. I have to have that to use epoxy or it will sag?