# Now That’s More Like It, Part 2 – Fly rod this time 4/24/10



## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

Recently I’ve been experimenting with tying my own foam poppers, as the store-bought ones can be a bit pricey and have a tendency to waterlog after a few minutes of use. :-/ Floatant helps with that problem, but it doesn’t last long enough. As such, I wanted to try whipping up a larger-bodied fly that would be more buoyant and present a bigger profile, which might also attract larger bass to strike at the surface. 


So, I headed out this evening about 45 minutes before dark to give one of my new homemade poppers a try, and within the first three casts or so, this smaller specimen whacked it, proving that the larger size wouldn’t deter the small fish. 









I continued tossing this new fly and it generated a lot of excitement, both for me and the fish! Sometimes it would get slapped the second it landed on the water. Other times, it would get pushed around or followed, which led to several decent catches. 









I was having a good time with all the action, but the gnats were starting to amass and I was running out of light.  I was thinking of quitting when a missed strike made a loud splash right in front of me. I quickly made a short recast and popped the fly once. It then disappeared in a deceivingly unimpressive boil, which I expected to be a small fish, until the line was unceremoniously ripped from my stripping hand! 


The fight was very, very fun on my 5wt, but it took quite a bit of effort to keep that furiously jumping bass from fouling me in the weeds.  I managed though, and when I finally dragged him onto the bank, I was pleasantly surprised to see he was even bigger than I’d thought! 









I didn’t put him on a scale, but I’d estimate it was 4.5lbs, maybe pushing five. That makes for my largest fly-caught bass of 2010 so far, and was a fantastic way to wrap up my new pattern test. [smiley=thumbsupsmileyanim.gif]


Too bad the weather looks bad tomorrow, or I might try to continue this lucky streak I’m having in the salt.


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

now yer talkin'


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## DSampiero (Oct 18, 2009)

Well done Hamm3r! I've got Wednesday through Saturday to fish, hit me with a PM. Salt or fresh, doesn't matter, would love to hit some of these bass-holes with fly rods.


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## out-cast (Jan 27, 2009)

Dang! That's a pretty decent green fish on fly. Even better on the homegrown, congrats.


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## mark_gardner (Mar 18, 2009)

catching fish on your own hand made lures  good job brother


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## Alonzo_Sotillo (Oct 9, 2009)

Very nice! Gotta love it when a plan comes together!


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

> now yer talkin'


I thought you might like that, Eric! ;D It was your comment in the other thread that made say, "Hey, I've probably got time to make a few casts with those new flies before dark". 



> Well done Hamm3r! I've got Wednesday through Saturday to fish, hit me with a PM. Salt or fresh, doesn't matter, would love to hit some of these bass-holes with fly rods.


Probably can't do that because of work this week (I was on night shift last week). However, I'm thinking about hitting the salt on Sunday, if you want to go for a ride in the highsider....



> Dang! That's a pretty decent green fish on fly. Even better on the homegrown, congrats.


Thanks!  I am definitely a lot better at fly fishing for bass than I am at saltwater species. :-/



> catching fish on your own hand made lures  good job brother


  Tied up a couple more this weekend, with a few tweeks that will hopefully improve the pattern a bit. Not that there's anything particularly original about them though...



> Very nice! Gotta love it when a plan comes together!


That's for sure...how often do you actually get the exact result you intended when fishing?


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## Big_Fish (Dec 10, 2006)

looks like fun keep it up.
ever since I made fishing a job I don't do much of it with the rod and reel!


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## phishphood (Dec 15, 2006)

Wow. That bass would have been a football with some eggs in her. Very nice job.


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## newbie_dave (May 31, 2007)

Once again, Nice Job Hammer!!


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

Thanks again guys!  I'm bass fishing tomorrow so there should be another report coming soon, plus I still have Sunday's to write...grrr!


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## drewrossi (Jan 30, 2010)

What are you using for the foam on the poppers?


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

Wapsi makes hard foam popper bodies. I'm sure other vendors do to.


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## tom_in_orl (Dec 9, 2006)

Very Nice!


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## drewrossi (Jan 30, 2010)

> Wapsi makes hard foam popper bodies. I'm sure other vendors do to.


Thanks, the way I read it, I thought you made the popper bodies yourself.


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