How to Make Fly Fishing Poppers

You probably know what poppers are. They are fishing lures with hollow bodies which helps them float on the surface of the water and are very effective at reeling in bass in particular, along with some other fish.

If you’re looking to save a few bucks and enjoying making things, you can make fly fishing poppers a lot cheaper than buying them and they’ll be just as good as shop bought ones.

How to Make Fly Fishing Poppers

Here is a video tutorial showing you how to make a fly fishing foam popper.

This is a good opportunity to share some tips I’ve picked up over the years using poppers while fly fishing too:

Practice Flicking the Rod and Popper

If you’re new to fishing with poppers but not fishing you will know all too well how there is a learning curve at first.

So practice flicking the rod to make a ‘popper action’. By this I mean use a flicking motion to lift the tip of your rod and flick the popper without lifting it out of the water.

Always keep the slack line in check and remember, practice makes perfect.

This video demonstrates some of the techniques effective for fishing sea bass with poppers.

Allow the Popper to Sit

Don’t get impatient with flicking the popper, fish are sensitive to the motion of poppers and will turn away if you’re making too much of a stir.

Think about how you can make the popper look vulnerable and make sure you’re making sharp flicks less often, than more flicks.

Poppers Cast Differently Than Dry Flies

It’s harder to cast poppers than it is a dry fly with a fly rod, but you can get the hang of it in no time and once you’ve nailed it, it’s a more satisfying way to fly fish in my opinion.

Poppers are bigger and less wind resistant, the trick to gain the distance you want is to accelerate to a stop when backcasting then deliver a smooth action on the forward cast.

If that doesn’t make sense on paper, this video demonstrates how to cast: