Jimmy: Thanks a lot for the tips. Didn't even dawn on me that Hobby Lobby would sell those corks. I was having to give what I thought (65 cents each I think) was a lot of money for them at Lowe's and Home depot. 65 cents each (plus tax LOL) don't sound like much, but if you lose as many poppers as we do to the trees, weeds, and bushes it adds up pretty quick. I have made some by gluing the 2mm foam sheets together but never have tapered them like your flies in the pic, but I think I like that tapered look a lot better and I think it would give the poppers a better "gurgling" action, which I think attracts the fish, specially bass. I also will try the foam with the adhesive on one side. I didn't know if that adhesive would hold up in water or not is why I didn't try it before now. The golf club shafts are a great idea too cause of that automatic, built in taper. I'll have to try that. I can get irons at the Goodwill store near here for a cpl bucks each..I'm trying to get a bunch of these made up for next year 9 I HOPE I have more time to fish next year than this year), and they take me a long time to build them cause of all the steps involved, like the painting them with two coats of color, then two coats of clear, but the pre colored foam would take those steps out and save me a lot of time. Thanks a again, Chuck
Please see our fly fishing hand made furled leaders at: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/you_wear_it_well_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_ipgZ ----- Original Message ----- From: Jimmy D. Moore To: vfb-mail@googlegroups.com Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 10:16 AM Subject: [VFB] Re:: Pre formed foam popper heads??? Chuck: For most of my popper bodies, panfish and bass alike, I use regular bottle corks that I buy really cheap at Hobby Lobby. They're already tapered and are vavailable in assorted sizes. I also make my own stamp-out cutters out of old steel golf shafts from Irons. With a golf shaft, I can get cutters from 5/8" all the way down to 5/16", depending on the kind of shaft I use. What I do is take the old shaft and cut it off in 2" increments. Then I sharpen the round edge of one end of the 2" pieces of shaft, so that it will readily cut. Then I sit the cutter on the piece of foam, etc. that I need to cut and placing a small, but sturdy block of wood on top of my cutter, hit it with a hammer. All these poppers are round, cylindrical. To taper them, I use my dremel tool. When stamped out, they are eaasy to push out of the cutter. Attached are some multi-colored poppers I made out of some stuff got from Hobby Lobby. It comes in sturdy foam/rubber sheets that have an adhesive backing on one side. I can stamp all one size or stair-step them down to give the popper a more streamlined appearance. Then I take the "rounds" and using the adhesive side, stick them together. You can alternate colors like those in the pic, or you can use all one color. When done, I shape them with a dremel tool and add rubber legs, hook, tail and eyes. Sounds complicated, but once you go through the process, it's easy. There's other tubing that will work just as well, but I've been repairing / reshafting golf clubs for near 30 years and always have some old shafts lying around. JIMMY D ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---