My Fly Designs: Making Our Own Popper Bodies

[@michaelmattia932]

I've been making popper Bodies out of Flip Flops for 5 years and they are a great way to save money and you can get them in a lot of colors!

[@erichandyauto]

Always wondered what I could do with the old wind chime tubes. Now I know. @ Cal Cooper, thanks for the slot idea, I'll give that a try.

[@stephennolin8129]

As always making simple and clear information .. thank you

[@hankvana2149]

Thanks Peter! I cut foam cylinders for booby eye flies (up to 3/8" diameter) using thin walled stainless steel tubing from one of those telescopic fly-swatters. The stainless steel holds an edge better than brass and if you use a piece of foam as a base (instead of wood) the tube stays sharper longer. Polishing the filed edge to a mirror finish (with 400 grit sandpaper) and lubricating the cutter with water with a bit of dish soap makes for smooth cylinders.

[@benbarnes2819]

Excellent video

[@keithr4224]

My old fly buddy from Cape Cod used to make his from lobster buoys. He used stainless tubes similar to yours but left them about 6 or 8 inches. Then he’d heat them with a torch and drive them in to retrieve a core from which he divided to lengths for his Poppers. We always had plenty of great big poppers to throw at the Stripers on Monomoy Or Race Point. And, he was always handing me baggies of blanks, so I always had plenty to work with myself. Great times. Miss my friend. Gonna try your method when I get the chance. Thanks Peter ...

[@hooked4lifeca]

Sounds like a fellow I met who used to repair reels at Goose Hummock. I know that he died not long ago and that he used to make poppers that way. I'm having a brain fart at the moment as I can't remember his name.

[@keithr4224]

@@hooked4lifeca Bill Strakle was my friend. He was a BIG TIME Fly Guy from Eastham. Famous for Cape Cod. Knew many of the Biggies in the sport. Best Fly Fisherman I ever knew. Great teacher too! May have worked The Goose, don’t know. Anyway, thanks for the advice. Helps an old guy like me keep active and at it! The Best .... KAR

[@harleymandk]

love your DIY stuff

[@flytyingtex]

Cool idea

[@pcolapaddler]

I used a section of metal fuel/brake line. I soldered a nut to one end and then soldered a nut to the appropriate sized screw. The screw is chucked into a drill and different size tubing threaded on for different sized popper bodies. The cutter tubes aren't perfectly straight, but the flip flop material is pretty forgiving. The resulting popper bodies look fine and catch their share of fish.

[@ronaldblair3236]

I use an aluminum arrow shaft in a hand drill and you can go horizontal and vertical. Horizontal blanks then can be cut to fit. The arrow shaft will cut smaller blanks but you can make a lot of them to store and cut what you need. The Brad’s pipes are excellent for other sizes. Also, when you drill them, as you get through the flip flop or what ever you use, it will leave a small expanded sliver of product showing out the end of the tube. You can usually use some tweezers to simply pull it out instead of taking toe tube out of the drill, most times. You can make a lot of them and save a lot of money .

[@hooked4lifeca]

K&S tubing from hobby stores comes in a large variety of diameters and lengths up to 3'. However, if we have other tubing available then why not use it.

[@SavageFlies]

Great video Peter; thank you for this one! Do you think you could put a finishing nail, or even a long sewing needle into the foam before drilling? Then you might be able to pull the foam out of the tube without having to un-chuck it.

[@hooked4lifeca]

The tube can hold three or four bodies before needing to remove the tubing. I just did one to save time on the video.

[@calcooper3597]

If you cut a small vertical slot near (but not going to) the cutting end of the tube, you might be able to push the foam out with a small screwdriver without removing the tube from the chuck.

[@SavageFlies]

Yeah, I would want to be able to do a bunch of them at a time too. I wonder if you could leave the tube a bit longer and cut three or four at a time and then punch them out.

[@calcooper3597]

@@SavageFlies Good idea. Also, I've been subbed to your channel for a while now. You do nice quality videos. Being from Texas, I really enjoy the bass flies!

[@hooked4lifeca]

That's how I do it, do three or four and then push them out. I was only doing one at a time for the sake of the video.

[@michaelsabula3729]

Do you think this method would work with other materials, cork for example? great video!

[@hooked4lifeca]

Yes, but the density has to be there for a good coring.

[@DRPowell]

I wonder if telescopic selfie stick tubing would be strong enough to use. I see them in every Goodwill / thrift store my GF drags me to.

[@hooked4lifeca]

Maybe, since they're cheap, it's worth a try