What's Poppin?

I'm not sure how many people started out fly fishing for panfish but the percentage has got to be waaaaayyy up there. One of the best parts of fishing for these little fighters? Poppers. Who doesn't love going into wherever you buy flies and picking up brightly colored and patterned poppers? Here is several that I picked up one time. Nothing fancy but they certainly work.

Standard run of the mill $1 a pop poppers.

Crappie, Bluegill, and Bass have all hit these things. Locally, most of my success has been on green but a lot of other guys have been using poppers with red on them for bluegill.

One of my bluegills caught on a popper

Little largemouth caught on a popper (Unfortunately also my largest)

How to Fish Poppers

One of the great things about poppers is how easy they are to fish along with the excitement of seeing the take. Here I will break it down by species that I have personally caught along with advice that has been given to me.

In general strip your line to make the popper pop once or twice then let it sit until all the rings have disappeared. Then repeat. If you aren't getting any strikes, speed it up or be a little more patient. The bass above immediately took the popper after a quick three pops. The one before it was extremely aggressive and would hit it multiple times per pop.

Bass - I am certainly no expert unless the specialty is bass under 6". I tend to fish weed lines with the poppers. Shoot a cast over into the edge of the weeds and slowly pop, wait, repeat. This has worked for largemouth. Smallmouth have liked rocky points where it gradually slopes into the water. Some good friends of mine frequently fish big poppers on lakes at night around structure and cover and have excellent results.

Crappie - This is one of my favorite fish to catch. Generally these guys tend to hang on the shade side of structure such as lily pads or the ends of docks. They will sit and watch your fly for minutes at a time. Be very patient. There will be a lot of rejections but short twitches seems to get them too strike.

Bluegill - These tend to be found in the shallowest water out of all these listed. Frequently they will be in a foot or less around woody structure. Keep the popper sized pretty small and you will find yourself hooking up with fish after fish after fish. These can be a total blast and my rod of choice is a 2wt although some areas grow frisbees with fins and a 2wt would probably not cut it. They will pretty much take any retrieve. Most of the time you can see the schools and observe how they react to your fly.

Quick Tips
Sometimes it is difficult to keep the popper floating. Especially in the small sizes. There are two solutions.

1) Smaller tippet.

2) Gink. Seriously the best floatant out there hands on. Put some on your fingers and coat the fly and the 6-8" of tippet connecting to the fly. You can find it almost anywhere that has fly fishing gear but here is the link for the product on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Anglers-Accessories-Gehrkes-Gink/dp/B00T6SMDDY


We all got into fly fishing somehow and for many, this is still one of the best parts of summer that holds many memories. So go out there and find a lake or pond, tie on a popper and go have a blast!!

Thanks for reading and tight lines!