These lil balsa poppers are how I learned to fly fish as a kid. My first fish ever was about a 2 pound largemouth on one of them lil poppers. Got me hooked
I've caught literally hundreds of fish on the same cork popper. The thing that may come undone is if it has any bucktail or feather off the hook... sometimes those come off. I have had the paint chip over time... from slamming it into bridges and trees hahaha they usually last until they snap off in a horrible chain pickerel incident or angry tree branch 🤣. Cork is definitely my go to unless I'm in a high pickerel area. Then I use foam poppers because they are much cheaper, but those don't last very long.
With panfish you don't have to, but it helps. For little fish like this you can just wrap your finger around the line and rod and when a fish hits just lift the rod semi quick. Strip setting is great for bigger fish, or if you are fishing streamers patterns. Streamer patterns can promote crazy hard strikes, so a strip set helps then.
@@KissTheFish thanks. The other day i had 3 fish that all came off because I didn’t know how to set the hook one of them being a little bass. Thanks for the tips.
I've only fly fished for trout when i travel and I would like to fly fish more often and in my local waters. What rigs would yall recommend for catching small panfish and bass?
I use a light zebco outfit with the omega pro real with 10 pound test and clear bubble. Then a 8 pound leader below a swivel to popper with a six inch dropper lead to a wet fly. I catch gills and bass !! My shoulders have stopped me from fly casting but I can do this and it works great
Most fly fishing applications you will need a leader. A tapered leader will help the fly turn over (basically the leader will out stretch and the fly will land farthest out). A little dry fly doesn't have a lot of weight and a tapered leader offers minimal wind resistance. This video I am using a popper pattern, which is much heavier than a standard fly. A popper like this will naturally pull itself to the farthest point of the cast just due to how much heavier it is than say a dry fly, so I don't need a tapered leader with this set up. Basically if you are fly fishing dry flies and small nymphs, you will definitely want a tapered leader to turn over the fly. Super heavy patterns do not need a tapered leader, or at least not as much of a taper... but this is just my own personal opinion. I would love to hear other people's input on this too
I like using a 7wt. I throw a lot of big mouse flies with that too. A good weight forward floating line in the same wt set up is good. If you need that extra range/strength to pull through weeds and lily pads, I like the Scientific Anglers Mastery Titan. It will cast a mile but it is definitely not for soft casts. This is a line meant to throw the big stuff through the thick stuff so it's thick and splashy... that being said I choose it every time when bass and pickerel fishing because warm water fish aren't as line shy as trout.
@@gkw6648looked like what we call “warmouth” here in Wisconsin. Cross between a bass and sunfish. They tend to have that blue markings and an unusually large mouth for a pan fish
@@Elasticmethod Nope. I live in wisconsin and know what Warmouth look like. And first of all, a Warmouth definitely is NOT a bass and sunfish hybrid 🤦🏿♂️ They are their own species of fish.
The heavier ones you might be able to. I've actually tried this size on an ultra light and I couldn't cast it more than 10 feet. With a fly rod you are casting the weight of the line, where as with a regular rod you are casting the weight of the lure. When you do get a fly rod look up videos on "how to load rod". Basically using the weight of the line, the momentum of the front and back cast, and doing single and double hauling.... It might sound like a lot but the motions are all within seconds and are a lot easier than most people think.
For bass it's pretty much the same thing. The only thing I do differently is when it first lands I let it sit for about 10 seconds. Sometimes the bass hit before even popping it!
Booglebug cork poppers. Cheap foam poppers work great too but get messed up a lot easier. When I fish in places with a lot of pickerel I use the foam ones more often just because they steal them haha. The Booglebug is a bit more pricey and I don't like feeding them to the pickerel lol
@@KissTheFish if you don't mind, what are the diameter thickness of those? I got a 5wt and some 20lb maxima leader, as well as a bunch of different tippet I can use
@@jscancella I'm looking at the 8lb mono from Field & stream I have (it was 5 bucks for 330 yards) and the diameter is .0092 inches. The 4lb Triline mono diameter is .008 inches
@@F37K no worries! I've been fishing my whole life and only 4 years ago I started fly fishing. I had watched a kid at a local pond catch fish after fish, while I wasn't even getting a hit. I went out and bought a cheap rig and spent time learning the basic casts. Once I caught my first fish on the fly rod, I knew I was about to be doing this for the rest of my life
