Question for TKF Clay

[ellisredfish]

Clay,
When you tied your popper, did you have to glue two pieces of the door hanger foam to get the thickness or did you tie a small popper? Cheers, Ellis

[NoBoat]

The door hangers I used where a 1/4" thick. I used one thickness. This is what Capt. Sparrow uses in his latest recipe for the V.I.P. .
The recipe can be found on his website:
http://lagunamadre.net/flies.htm

[let's go]

The door hangers are just about right. Mine were slightly thinner than the foam on the VIP's I got from Sparrow, but I think they'll work fine. I've used VIP's tied by Sparrow and I think the large doll eyes have a lot to do with the amount of "pop" you get. For reds I use several different retrieves with these poppers. A slow steady pull creates a wobbling wake. A series of short strips immitates a shrimp skipping. As a last resort or when blind casting, I strip it hard to make a fairly impressive "pop and spit". On sighted fish I'll try those three retrieves in that order until the fish determine which one they prefer that day.

Trout seems to like the harder popping and a steady retrieve.

[ellisredfish]

Thanks, for some reason I thought the poppers were bigger. Lets answered my next question about retrieves. I feel much better now.