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Tying the Spirit River Foam Popper

Have you ever met a fly fisher who doesn't like to fish poppers? Me either! Carefully working a popper near a weed line just to watch the explosion unfold at the water's surface is a guaranteed adrenaline rush every time.

Traditionally poppers are spun from deer hair in just about every size, shape and color, however deer hair can be intimidating to novice tyers. Even if you are proficient at spinning deer hair it still takes a long time to finish a

popper of significant proportions. In order to cope with this issue, fly tying companies, such as Spirit River, have introduced a wave of new and innovative products. Amongst the countless hard popper bodies available today, I stumbled upon soft ,colored foam bodies from Spirit River, perfect for tying fast poppers that still look great! The foam bodies come ready to use and are available in 2 popular sizes. For our poppers I chose the bigger of the two sizes, because in bass fishing big flies mean big fish!

1. Start off by securing a hefty bass hook, such as our 1/0 Mustad C52S BLN, in the vise and start the thread. It is important to use good, Kevlar strength thread and coat the front 1/2 of the hook shank with unevenly spaced wraps. You don't want this part of the shank to be smooth, you'll see why later.

2. Tie in 4 to 6 strands of green silicone near the back of the hook shank (but not at or after the gape). These will act as little legs and attractors when the fly is completed.

3. Follow up the silicon legs with 6 strands of matching color Krystal Flash or other flashy material tied in the exact same way. Try to spread out both the silicone and the Krystal Flash so that there is an even amount on both sides of the hook shank (left and right).

4. With the tailing section complete, select 2 webby hackles from a chartreuse or grizzly green roster cape. Strip off the bottom sections of the hackles and tie them in at the back of the fly so that they splay outwards.

5. Now take a third matching hackle and wrap it around a few times at the base of the tail. This helps cover up any extra thread that was used in the creation of the tail section. After a few wraps, secure the hackle and trim away any excess and whip finish.

6. Coat the uneven wraps of thread you created earlier with either thick head cement, or some other form of adhesive. Make sure to leave the adhesive alone for a few minutes to set. You want a very tacky consistency before taking the next step.

7. Once the adhesive sets to a tacky consistency, slip the foam popper body over the eye of the hook and onto the thread and adhesive covered shank. Make sure that the foam body is sitting on the shank properly and let set. This may take a few minutes or hours depending on the adhesive you used.

8. Once the adhesive is firmly dry, Thread a strand of silicone through the foam body by using a sowing needle and threading silicone in the eye. Cut the doubled over strand of silicone at one end to create the look of two "arms" on each side. Plastic eyes can also be added in order to increase realism.

9. The finished product! It looks great, floats high, and will outlast any deer hair contraption you can spin up. A quick, easy, and cheap way to create great looking poppers! Have fun!

Written By: Nick Pujic, © Dec, 2003
Photographs By: Nick Pujic © Dec 2003