Wine Cork Bass Poppers

    Ok, so I've never been much of a DIY guy...... until I realized how much I was spending on flies. There's not much that'll annoy you like losing a five dollar popper to a high tree limb in your back cast or hearing that "snap" and retrieving a fly-less leader because you executed your forward cast too soon and thereby broke your tippet. If you're somebody who fishes a lot, it can add up fast. So, when I finally had enough of giving hard earned my money to fly shops for overpriced, Vietnamese-made flies, I decided to start tying my own.

    Tying your own flies can save you a lot of money, that's a given. But it can save you even more money if you use your resources to obtain potential fly-tying materials from sources that are not necessarily designated as such. One of my favorite materials for tying bass poppers is your regular, age-old, wine-stopping cork.  You can buy an assortment containing twenty, or so, of various sizes for only $5 at a typical arts & crafts store. Get yourself some of these corks along with a handful of number 0, 2, and 6 hooks, some maribou, deer hair, flash, silly legs, thread, permanent markers, and clear-coat nail polish from your local walmart and you'll have your basic popper tying bases covered. Of course you need a vice, bobbin, bodkin, etc, but that goes without saying. The point is, it doesn't take much to start making your own poppers that will catch bass just as effectively as the ones you've been paying $5 a piece for.

    Just cut a little trench in one side of the cork that the hook shank can fit in at full length, glue the hook in place(make sure you wrap the straight portion of the hook shank with thread first so the glue will have more to adhere to), add your tail & legs, color it up with your sharpie markers, apply some clear coat, and voila!... You have yourself a finished bass popper that probably cost sonewhere around $0.25. Not too shabby!

    Remember, the less you spend on flies the more you'll have to spend on that  new rod and reel in a different line weight or tip action you don't have yet. You're welcome, 

Taylor Nauta

The Southern Fly Guy