{{+1}}Articulated popper head{{-1}}

Poppers are a bit harder to cast than a normal fly because of the wind resistance but if you slow your cast down a little I'm sure you'll soon get the hang of it. Once you do you have another tool in your arsenal which is useful in three diverse situations:

When pelagic fish are actively pushing bait fish to the surface and whacking them a popper of the same basic length and colour is almost irresistible.
When you have to get right into shallow water or mangroves to pull a fish out of a narrow gutter or nearby structure fish will often respond aggressively to a noisy popper.
As a teaser a popper will often excite pelagics such as trevally and queenies and give you the chance to present a more conventional fly.

These articulated poppers are as simple as it gets. Thread your tippet through the hole in the simple closed cell popper head and tie on any unweighted deceiver or thing or a dedicated popper tail and your in business. These are very buoyant popper heads so in a pinch you can even tie on a weighted fly if. if you do that I suggest you start stripping as soon as the fly hits the water.

Process

A	The first thing you have to do is to locate some appropriate size closed cell foam. When I am fishing for barra or the likes of tuna, queenfish or GT's I like a popper head roughly 40mm long and 20 mm square. Don't worry about the colour of the material because it easy and fun to paint it up to your requirements. The close cell foam I have settled on cost $2 at the cheap shop and is a 20mm thick gardening kneeling pad and is enough material for over 60 popper heads. Using a pen mark your popper profile out on the closed cell foam. In this case I am making 4 poppers each of 40mm X 20mm X 20mm (the thickness of the closed cell foam kneeling board).

The first thing you have to do is to locate some appropriate size closed cell foam. When I am fishing for barra or the likes of tuna, queenfish or GT's I like a popper head roughly 40mm long and 20 mm square. Don't worry about the colour of the material because it easy and fun to paint it up to your requirements. The close cell foam I have settled on cost $2 at the cheap shop and is a 20mm thick gardening kneeling pad and is enough material for over 60 popper heads.
Using a pen mark your popper profile out on the closed cell foam. In this case I am making 4 poppers each of 40mm X 20mm X 20mm (the thickness of the closed cell foam kneeling board).

B	Using a long sharp bladed knife gut each of the popper blanks out. Whilst traditional poppers have a concave face on the front I have found that to be unnecessary on these articulated popper heads. Having said that you can easily make the head concave with a suitable size drill bit.

C	Using a ruler and a pen mark up the cut lines on each popper blank.

D	Cut the two sides of the popper blank off first.

E	Rotate the blank 90%. Initially you will proaebly need to paint the remaining two cut lines in but over time you will find you can dispense with that action. Cut the remaining two sides off the back of the popper.

F	The blanks are now ready to have the tubing fitted. The tubing I use is either from Chuppa chup lollies or the straw from a small popper drink. If that is too tedious for you purchase thin plastic tubes at your craft shop.

G	Take your bodkin and from the thin end of the popper push and twist the bodkin needle all the way up the length of the popper taking care to come out in the middle of the front face of the popper.

H	Use the hole created by the bodkin as a guide and from the thin end of the popper drill out half the hole with a bit that is just marginally thinner than the tube you going to use.

\I	Repeat that process from the front end of the popper. If you follow the hoe you created with the bodkin the drill holes will line up perfectly.

J	Cut your tubes to the same length as the poppers.

K	Put the tube on the bodkin needle. Mix a small amount of 5 minute epoxy and apply a small amount toward the leading end of the tubing. Use the bodkin to carefully push the tubing all the way through the popper from the thin end. Push the tubing through the popper exposing justa small amount of the tubing through the popper. Apply a little 5 minute epoxy to the exposed tubing and then take the bodkin neele out of the tubing and put it back into the tubing from the opposite direction and push the exposed tubing back into the popper so that the tubing is now flush with the popper at each end.

L	The popper is now fully formed and you can proceed with decorating the popper. I generally paint them, occasionally apply sprinkles and nearly always add eyes to all four sides of the popper.