I've broken a promise I made at the beginning of this fishing season not to buy any more warm water poppers, and trout flies this year. I've got enough poppers and trout flies to last me years. One of the reasons I have so many poppers is me using them until they litterly come apart, meaning no hackle. Trout flies are much cheaper than poppers. I can buy trout flies for as little as .84 each. Compare that price to your cheapest popper starting at 3.00 to an expensive 8.00; then it causes me to make that popper last as long as it catches fish.
Now to the heart of this post; The Surface Seducer Double Barrel Popper. This popper is different from your ordinary surface popper. What makes the popper stand out from all the poppers I have used over the years is its unique body design. The Double Barrel has a soft foam epoxy body that will not chip or break loose from the hook. It also has all the hackle buried deep inside the body of the popper, keeping it in place. The hackle on cork poppers will usually come unraveled over time because of savage hits or removing the popper from the mouth of the fish. The Double Barrel will stand up to both the hits and hook removal.
Double Barrel poppers come in various colors, but the cream color is the best. The color imitates the shad that the bass feed on. It resembles another popper I've told you about over the years. Regarding design and durability, it is a step above all cork material poppers I have ever used fly fishing.
I didn't discover this popper. Jeff, one of my fly fishing buddies, started fishing this popper for the spotted bass with me on Smith Lake in April. He was landing bass working the popper with off-and-on aggressive jerks; bass was nailing it!! He couldn't remember where he purchased the popper, and as luck would have it, he had only one of the poppers. So I decided to fish something else that morning in the form of the closure minnow. I landed numerous bass using the closure, but the majority of the bass was taken on the Double Barrel by Jeff. After that trip, you would think I would order a few, but I decided the poppers I was fishing would land fish like his new popper. So I continued to fish my overstocked supply of cork poppers. It took a few more trips to convince me to purchase the Double Barrel for eight bucks each. I hate to pay that much for a popper, but I knew it was worth the price so promise broken. I ordered four before Jason returned home to fish with me for a few weeks this month. To make the rest of this post short; Jason made good use of the poppers I ordered, as you can see in the images below.
Looked like a nice day on the lake.
ReplyDeleteMark
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying this because Jason is my son, but he has to be one of the top fly-casting individuals I have ever fished with. His false casting and accuracy fishing with a fly rod is something to behold. He has tremendous patience when fishing the popper, which is why he lands more bass than I do! Thanks for the comment
Yeah Bill, when the bass hit topwater poppers it's a lot of fun. Some of my buddies use the Double Barrels and do well. Some of the guys buy the bodies and tie them backwards, making an effective slider, too. Haven't used them myself, yet, only 'cause I have SO many other bass bugs. Fun stuff!
ReplyDeleteAl
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I just started fishing with the ble Barrel this year. My go to popper has been the Boggle Bug for years. The Double Barrel last much longer than the Boogle becasue of the way the hackle is tied. They use glue to whole the hackle in place as opposed to just tying the hackle in place. I haven't tred the slider ye
Al
ReplyDeleteI will be purchasing the Slider on my next Popper order. It will produce when the top action slows. I am impressed with this popper because it lasts much longer than the Boogle Bug I have fished with for years. The Boggle Bugs are suitable for a couple of fish, especially if the fish have it deep in their throat.
As stated in my post, even the Double Barrel will not produce if the bass or bluegill are not hitting anything you toss at them---this morning was one of those trips----thanks for the comment.