Tying
and fishing tecniques for big poppers
by
G e r h a r d
L a u b s c h e r
It
is common knowledge among the more experienced saltwater fly fishers
that a large popper is just the right medicine for big kingfish.
No big kingfish can resist striking a noisy popper fished on the
surface with a rapid retrieve.
Knowing
this very well, and having seen the destructive strikes of kingfish
and other game fish on these surface flies over the years, I was
still reluctant to use them. On to many occasion have I had the
water exploding behind my popper with a big fish desperately trying
to get hold of it, only to result in no hook-up. I decided that
I would much rather cast a subsurface fly where my hook-up rate
is far higher. Last weekend of Benguerra Island, in Mozambique's
Bazaruto Archipelago this changed.
I have
been toying around with the idea of using a sliding head in-front
of a streamer (as done by many other anglers), but always thought
it to be a waste, throwing a popper and a deceiver/clouser just
didn't make sense. The fly alone is wind resistant, surely you don't
need a popper as well. It would make much more sense to use a loose
swinging popper tail behind a big foam head. The head lies deeper
in the water, resulting in a bigger pop, and the tail, hangs in
the water at an angle, so the fish doesn't have to strike it of
the surface, (which normally results in missed strikes). Another
big advantage of the free-swinging tail is that you don't lose any
of the hook gape to a big popper head slided over the hook shank.
These
poppers worked like a charm in the area known as "Kingfish Alley",
a channel between the southern tip of Bazaruto Island and the northern
point of Benguerra Island. Every strike resulted in a hook-up, and
all the fish hooked in this manner were successfully landed and
released.
Building flyfishing poppers
I
took a couple of 4/0 hooks and tied a standard popper tail onto
them, long white buck tail- two batches with flashabou in-between.
To add a bit of colour I wrapped a couple of red saddle hackles
around the front of the hook just before tying the fly off. This
tail has very little wind resistance, making it a dream to cast.
Connecting
the head to the tail
Make
a hole in the middle of the of the popper head where you can slide
the tippet through. Tie the popper tail to the tippet using a non-sliding
loop knot like a perfection loop or Texan-twist, the loop should
be about 1cm long. Take the popper head and slide it down the tippet
over the knot so that the knot is inside the popper head, the tail
should now be right up against the popper head and still be able
to swing freely.
A
popper is a big wind resistant fly as those who have casted them
will know well. In order to cast the popper as effectively as possible
one uses a heavy fly line (10-12). You can even use one line weight
heavier than the designated weight of your rod. Your rod will not
overload, the wind resistant popper slows your casting stroke down
often resulting in the rod not loading properly. By "upping" the
rod one-line weight you compensate for this, resulting in the rod
loading as it should. (Under normal circumstances, even when using
poppers like these, I still prefer to use the designated line weight).
Whichever
line you decide to use you are gong to have to slow down your casting
stroke, the popper is very wind resistant and moves slowly. If you
are going to "force" your cast by trying to get to a high line speed,
you are not going to load the rod and you're cast is going to go
nowhere. If you are lucky enough to have a bit of wind behind you,
use it to your advantage by opening the loop on your final forward
cast. The open loop will be picked up by the wind, and your fly
will be carried those extra couple of feet.
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