Clouser’s EZ Popper

Casting a floating fly and watching the take—whether it’s a busting strike or a gentle sip—still gives me goose bumps. I like to fish surface flies for many fish species ranging from stripers to albacore to jack crevalle. But my favorite fish to catch on the surface are smallmouth bass, and it’s for these fish that I designed the EZ Popper.

Poppers may be one of the oldest types of flies designed for bass, and today they are still the flies of choice for many bass anglers. Over the years, poppers have been made from many types of materials including cork, balsa wood, and deer-body hair spun on the hook and clipped to shape. But in my opinion, foam is the perfect material for poppers. It is readily available, comes in a wide range of colors, and is easy to cut to shape. As soon as I discovered foam for fly tying, I stopped fishing deer-hair patterns because they took too long to tie. I could tie foam poppers three times as fast as trimmed deer-hair patterns, and they were more durable.

But foam alone is not good enough. Uncoated foam poppers don’t seem to catch as many fish as cork poppers because they do not make enough noise when they hit the water and don’t sit low in the surface like cork poppers, two characteristics that seem to catch more smallmouth. To make foam perform at its best, I coat it with Flex Coat rod-building epoxy. A coating of Flex Coat adds enough weight so that the poppers cast easily, splat loudly when they hit the surface, and sit low in the surface film.

Flex Coat also makes foam poppers more durable. Foam poppers coated with Flex Coat won’t crack, peal, or chip, even if they hit rocks or the side of a boat. Sun won’t dry and crack foam flies coated with Flex Coat. They will also stand up to toothy fish. I’ve seen bluefish and barracuda bite chunks out of poppers made from cork and balsa wood, but foam coated with Flex Coat stands up well to these toothy species.

Working with Flex Coat

Flex Coat is a flexible, durable, and clear epoxy that cures in about six hours. Because of its long curing time, the epoxy has time to settle in all the crevices of the popper body. When it is placed on a rotating drier, the epoxy creates a smooth finish. I like to tie my EZ Poppers in batches. I coat all of the heads at one time, let them dry, and finish them the next day.

As with all epoxies, mix equal parts hardener and resin on a Post-It Note or other disposable surface. Be careful to thoroughly mix the two parts and use the syringes or mixing cups that come with the Flex Coat to make sure you use equal amounts of each. I like to apply Flex Coat with one of the brushes also included in the package.

Though doing so may not catch more fish, I like to add a little bit of extra-fine glitter to the epoxy mixture to make my flies dazzle. Don’t add too much glitter or you’ll weaken the bond of the epoxy and it won’t cure properly. Extra-fine glitter is available in most craft stores.

Colors and Sizes

EZ Poppers work in a wide range of colors, limited only by each tier’s imagination. I like to pick a popper color that I can see well in the current fishing conditions. When there is glare, black poppers show up the best. In low light conditions, a white or yellow popper is easiest to see.

Fly shops carry a wide range of closed-cell foam cylinders in a variety of colors and sizes. Several manufacturers make foam cylinders, including Edgewater, Dale Clemens, and Rainy’s. I use 5/16-, 3/8-, 1/2-, and 5/8-inch sizes for the EZ Popper and cut them to the lengths I need with a sharp razor blade or utility knife. No sanding or grinding is necessary. The total length of the foam body for the popper should not be any longer than two-thirds the length of the hook shank. This leaves one-third of the shank to tie on the tail materials. This method of measurement works for both long- or short-shank hooks.

For freshwater species I use wide-gap hooks such as Mustad 3366 and for salt water I use Mustad S74S SS or Tiemco 8089. Determine which hook size to use by the diameter of the foam cylinder—the foam cylinder’s diameter should fit in the gap of the hook.

For saltwater species, foam cylinders with 5/8- and 3/4-inch diameters fit long-shank saltwater hooks in sizes 1 through 5/0. For freshwater species, I use hook sizes from #8 through #1/0. At times large smallmouth will take a size 8 or 10 popper while ignoring larger sizes. I use the smaller sizes for bluegills and add rubber legs to the pattern—either through the body of the fly or tied in directly behind the body. One of my favorite bluegill EZ Poppers is yellow with bright yellow rubber legs and small yellow hackle tips for the tail.

Fishing the EZ Popper

The flat face and placement of the hook helps the popper generate disturbance on the water’s surface when retrieved in short strips. You can retrieve the EZ Popper by ripping it across the surface to create a big commotion or tease it so it only makes a subtle ripple. Experiment with retrieves.

You can replicate a crippled minnow if you reverse the popper head and fish it like a diver. Since the popper’s flat face no longer pushes against the water, this version creates less disturbance and is especially effective in low, clear water. Use long, slow strips to imitate a minnow struggling or feeding at the surface. Often a smallmouth will softly sip in the fly when the diver lays motionless on the surface. Many times I have seen large smallmouth come to investigate and sip the fly in only after all ripples from the fly dissipate after it lands on the surface. For the diver body to properly dive, the hook eye should protrude out of the foam head just above the foam lip.

Bob Clouser operates Clouser’s Fly Shop with his wife, Joan, in Middletown, Pennsylvania. This article is an excerpt from his upcoming book Clouser’s Flies (Stackpole Books 2006).