Fly Tying: Brammer's Faux Bucktail Popper - Pike Fly Tying 

what size hook do you recommend for the articulated hook set up? using the large head set up.

Hey Tim, I certainly love the idea! Anything big and articulated gets a thumbs up in my book. These size large double barrel poppers are designed to fill Flymens 28mm shanks perfectly, and the shank would have just enough room for the the craft fur collar to cover the articulation joint, as well as being far more durable than a two hook wire connection system. If you intend to make a larger popper, articulating it would be the best option for moving the hook placement rearward. You could easily tie the tail hook of a chunky dunker, or any hollow style fly, or even a bff tail up to a faux bucktail wing stack with flash. the possibilities are endless man! Good luck!

Thanks David! I'll certainly put a dubbing brush at normal speed in a future vid for you. As far as the Faux bucktail....any limitation will depend on the style of fly you tie, and what you consider to be trout and smallmouth flies. For clousers, which work great for both, it is an excellent all around substitute! For baitfish style patterns ranging from 4" to 6", the key to success is finding a means to build bulk. Natural bucktail is hollow and flairs, where the Faux will need a material dam of sorts to increase the volume of the fly. For me, the most consistant and easiest way to get the "flair" affect has been Hedron Flashabou Minnow Body, as well as Flymen Body Tubing in 1/8 and 1/4" dia. For me, the advantage of the Faux is its length and durability and I tend to consider for big fly applications. That being said, it makes for an excellent rib on nymphs and one pack would last a life time.

Hey man, I'm using a Right Bobbin. I prefer the Mag, but also have the Half Hitch, the difference being the length of the tube, and the Half Hitch has a slight taper at the end of the tube to slide a half hitch off of. You can find them in a few places but I'd recommend going to Kelly Galloup's Slide Inn.

thx for the help buddy !!!

Hey Andrew, you're spot on with the hook placement to the popper. Nearer to the middle of the head will definitely get the head more dig and pop, instead of simply sliding - something I had not played with at the time. I throw these fairly causally with an 8 wt. No issues with distance or turning them over. A good fat shooting head for bass, or pike/musky will have no problem delivering this size popper.

Personally, I use a rather small snap to attach my flies, especially popper, about 20lb or so. I find the weight of the snap - being right at the hook eye to play a rather large role into the flotation of the popper, or I will omit the Snap all together and bind the leader directly to the hook eye if the foam head is a smaller size. I don't use Knot 2 Kinky, but a Nylon Coated Stainless Steel similar to Bauer and Hagstrom, and haven't run into any issues with these flymen popper bodies

Gunnar Brammer Thank you! Super helpful, and now that I've used the XL versions of these, I've found that I have no issues with my leader rig dragging it down.

I just like big flies Lou, haha. The size of your fly should have nothing to do with the species you're targeting but everything to do with the forage you are imitating, with respect to the system you are fishing. My warm water rivers here in Duluth have really large baitfish such as shiners, shad, tulibee, chubs, suckers.....ect. So I tend to through flies from 5 - 8" for smallmouth almost exclusively once summer arrives through late fall. Yet if you were to fish a different river system dominated by dace, silversides, and fatheads, the fly range would be more on the 2-4" range. My point was simply not to standardize your fly size based off of the predator, but the system itself. Most popper silhouette mimic tadpole and frogs in my opinion which average in the standardized fly size for smallmouth poppers, but I need something to imitate the larger baitfish that occur in my area. Plus, when fish are active, they will tackle just about anything, and going as big as I can has always been more fun for me personally.

Sweet action bro. Thanks!

Unfortunately no, the Faux Bucktail is much to stiff and is a completely solid fiber