Fly Tying Tips
~ Edgewater Foam Popper Bodies ~
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Edgewater Foam Popper Bodies
With the arrival of spring, my mind turns to top water fishing and tying up big flies for big bruisers. I've been using Edgewater's standard popper heads to create flies for panfish and bass for several seasons. Recently I got some of Edgewater's more unique popper bodies, which add a range of actions to top water patterns. I think you'll enjoy these twists on foam popper bodies!
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Edgewater popper bodies are made of a dense semi-soft closed cell foam. They give a little bit when squeezed, but instantly pop back into shape. This makes them incredibly durable without the need for heavy epoxy coatings. Heads come in white, yellow, chartreuse, and black. Several body styles are available in blue and purple as well, but these are rather difficult to find. Since the foam is a solid color through out, rather than a dyed outer coating, they hold their color very well, even after savage attacks from big toothy fish. When in doubt, I generally opt for white bodies, which are easily colored with the aid of a permanent marker. If the fly gets a few punctures, simply touch it up to hide the white. One note of caution, you need to make sure your markers are permanent or the colors will run. I had a white head colored chartreuse bleed over an entire box of flies once!
Edgewater offers the standard range of popper bodies for bass, panfish, and any other fish that will take a topwater presentation. Their line-up includes tiny "dink" heads, foam pencil poppers, and chugger bodies that create one heck of a pop. Edgewater's newest heads introduce shapes that can give your topwater presentations a whole new set of actions, and open up some exciting opportunities for Great Lakes anglers.
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Edgewater Flute Fly Head
The flute fly head features three channels along it's length with small flat surfaces towards the rear. These give the fly an incredibly erratic topwater action, but without the loud popping sound of a flat faced popper. Water passes down the flutes, ultimately hitting the flat surfaces and gets forced out violently in several directions. This fly throws a heck of a spray on a fast retrieve, yet runs relatively silent.
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Edgewater Diver Head
The diver body is the foam equivalent to a Deer Hair Diver. The coned shape forces the fly down under the water on the retrieve, and the foam floats the fly back up to the surface when you pause. The faster you strip and the longer you pull, the further the fly will dive. A favorite pike presentation is to fish this fly on a short sink tip. Give the fly one or two good strips, than pause for several seconds to allow the diver to return to the surface.
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Edgewater Wiggle Critter Head
The wiggle critter is truly unique. It's extremely angled flat face causes it to dive on the retrieve. Unlike the diver body, which dives smooth and evenly, the wiggle critter has an erratic action. As water passes over the angled face, the fly wiggles back and forth, much like a shallow water plug. This can be a huge advantage when fishing in heavy winds, where a smaller popper is easier to cast, yet the wiggle critter creates the action of a fly twice it's size. For an even more erratic side-to-side action, try tying a wiggler with an articulated tail.
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Edgewater Spinster Head
While the spinster head looks a lot like a standard popper, it's a little different. It was originally created for rat-tail styled flies. I've found that when the body is reversed (as pictured), it makes one of the most versatile foam poppers going. The reason is the deeply half-cupped face. If you begin your strip slowly, the air escapes and you get a large surface commotion with almost no noise. A quick jerk on the line creates a loud popping sound witch can bring fish (or scare them) from a long distance away.
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Popper Tying Tips
Tying with foam popper bodies is easy. After you've matched the head to a hook (Mustad 34011's work well for most Edgewater bodies), mark the rear of the head with your thumb, remove the head from the shank, and start your tying thread at your thumbnail. Tie your fly from the thread to the rear of the hook. When you're done, wrap the front of the shank and tie off. This creates a better base for you to epoxy the head to. I like to use a variety of soft but durable materials for the rear, and I use super glue liberally. Edgewater heads are extremely durable, so the rest of the fly should be as well.
To complete your popper, decorate the head with permanent marker. I'll add black and green spots to frog-like patterns, or draw gill plates on wounded bait fish. In any case, I always make sure to include a little bit of red on or near the head, as it's a very effective strike trigger. I add eyes to all of my poppers, although I'm not sure fish see them on topwater patterns. The best bet for foam heads are animal eyes, which are 3-D eyes with plastic posts. The posts push into the foam, which gives you a much larger gluing surface. Lastly, if you want to add rubber legs, simply push a hole through the foam with a bodkin. For a larger hole, heat the bodkin with a lighter until it glows red.
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| Original article by Brian Doelle, stolen from www.QuestOutdoors.Net with permission |
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