I float tubed a "secret" small lake close to McKinney this afternoon, and had a great time! I caught 4 bass around 2-3lbs each, 3 fish around a pound each, and a number of smaller bass. The fish were real shallow, in and against the weeds mostly. They hit pretty much everything. The biggest one came of a white Bett's popper, size 1. Also caught a nice ones on a yellow dial-a-popper, a chartruese/black clouser, a white krystal bugger, a long tandem fly, and a spun dog wool bass bug. (my shepherd mix sheds thick wool in the late spring. )
Pretty awesome. Best bite was on the long white tandem fly. I cast it close to the shoreline, the fly pretty much suspends under the surface, a few strips, and then a big wake came charging out and smacked the fly. Awesome!

Hey ccabal do you have pics of these flies?

bet that was a good tug on the line, especially the bigger ones...i gotta get my fly rod out (their just biting plastic baits soo well right now, lol)

Well they were pretty much hitting everything today. Yeah it was great fun. Kelkay, I may post a few pics. Unfortunately I lost my tandem fly. But I may have pic somewhere.

Kelkay,
If I were stuck on a deserted pond and the only means of survival was to catch and eat the bass in the pond, my go-to fly is the white bett's popper. the black/yellow bumblebee works real good too. Get some from Walmart.



here is a pic of the dog-wool fly.

great time

Christian

Looks like I am regretting not being in town yesterday!

Thanks for the photos. Yes I did want to see that tandem fly. I am making a popper as we speak. I think it may be larger than what you have.

I looked at my styrofoam popper bag and it has #1 hooks. It is bigger than the little bream size poppers....maybe two or three times that size. I wish I had read this before I painted the body though. I painted it a yellow chartreuse color with holo eyes...and covered it with Hard As Nails. The paint was jig paint that you dip. I need to find another way to paint these...what type of paint is good for the foam popper that will cover it but be less thick than jig paint?

Do you use your poppers just early morn or right before dark? Or when fly fishing do you use them anytime of the day?

Poppers are best in the early morn but they can be used at any time of the day, or night, for that matter. On a cloudy and/or rainy day you can use a popper all day. You can use them over weed beds any time of the day. Several years ago I was fishing at about 2:30 in the afternoon on a rainy day at Lake Fork in October and cast a #1 Peck's Popper next to a lone tree truck and caught a 7lb 15oz bass.

Like Cliff said, its mostly a morning/evening thing, or overcast day thing.
I think the water temperature needs to be 60 degrees or above to use poppers, so basically any time except for winter.

In the spring, or fall, when you have overcast days, and ESPECIALLY if its drizzly and calm, poppers work great all day long.

In the heat of the summer, poppers work well late at night fished slow, or also work well from first light, before sunrise, to when the sun hits the water. I've havent had as much luck on the evening popper bite in the hot days of summer.

Great job Christian. That dog wool bass bug rocks.

hooper

It depends on the pond for me, but sometimes I can use a popper any time of the day for bass. Especially this time of the year when they are literally on the shore.

Well that is kind of what I thought. Except I didn't know you could use them all day on a cloudy, drizzly day...that helps, thanks.