Weedless Frog

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Here is the "weedless" pencil popper in all of its simplistic beauty.

My apologies, the hook is not Gamakatsu, but Owner... "Mosquito hook".

The fly does what it is supposed to do. It is not sexy but it works rather well. One of my fishing buddies coined it "the miracle worker".

[Paul Arden]

That’s very nice Gary! I shall tie some of those. Does it skip if you immediately start pulling fast? I usually lead the tip of the bend of my poppers to stop this happening.

Great looking fly and gives me a few ideas!

Incidentally I’ve been looking for and trying to design a fly that floats but when pulled sinks. Do you have any patterns that do this? This is for fishing flies that can sink but sit on the surface for Snakehead shots.

Thanks, Paul

[Nick]

I assume that you have tried something like this?
https://www.flytyingforum.com/uploads/i ... 2a1384.jpg

[queenfish]

Here are few that do that.
when you pull they swim downward, stop they float.
they are very good for bass and saratoga here.

can't download picture I will send it through email.

[Paul Arden]

IMG code - just instead the URL!

Code: Select all

[img]https://www.flytyingforum.com/uploads/img457a2df2a1384.jpg[/img]

Thanks Gary!

I haven’t seen that before. How does it work and swim? Is the hook bent or is that the way the foam is cut?

Cheers,
Paul

[Paul Arden]

(It’s much simpler and no doubt less dangerous than the beer cans we were cutting up).

[Paul Arden]

Vince (Queenfish) sent me a few photos last night.

If you use heavy hooks you don’t need any lead
If the foam is wide I use 2 or 3 turns 25 gauge lead right on the bend of the hook and finish with loon on top.

Cheers Vince.

Ps I bend the eye of the hook slightly upward as well.

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Paul,

That weedless pencil popper has a curious flaw (or maybe not?)

If the tube is the same length as the body, the leader slides through easily. So easy, in fact, that the hook and bucktail will drop if the popper is allowed to pause.

It does not seem to be a positive thing for the saltwater fish I usually target... but who knows what a snakehead might think? If you have some missed strikes on a cast, maybe pausing the retrieve and letting the back end drop might induce another hit?

If you don't want the fly to separate simply cut the tube a bit short and leave the last bit of foam body tubeless. A good size knot on the ring will stick inside the butt of the foam body and reduce the tendency of the fly to separate.

The fly will occasionally skip on the first strip since the front of the foam is cut on an angle. About the same percentage of times, the fly might dive a bit. Since the foam is free to rotate randomly, the fly has a much more erratic retrieve than a standard popper.

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Incidentally I’ve been looking for and trying to design a fly that floats but when pulled sinks. Do you have any patterns that do this? This is for fishing flies that can sink but sit on the surface for Snakehead shots.
Thanks, Paul

Paul,

The flies in the photo will do just that. And, they pull very straight. They will return to the surface, although pretty slowly, on a pause.

The trick is keeling them with a strip of lead tape. I tried to show that in the photo.

What is not evident is that these are rather large flies... they are tied on 3/0 extra long shank saltwater hooks.

[Paul Arden]

Thanks Gary. I shall have a go at both of those. Skipping across the surface is generally not good for Snakehead. It can work if they decide to chase and you have enough space. But usually they ignore it and next time come up spooked. I find a really good bloop to be best.

The sinking fly stuff is unusual. There are times when they just don’t seem to want to eat off the surface. So this is something I need to explore.

Thanks, Paul