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Week 4
Bob’s
Banger
By: Michael
Uleski
Pop, gurgle, sploosh! Everyone loves the exciting action that fishing a topwater lure can provide. Sadly most saltwater game fish aren’t quite as gentle with flies as their freshwater cousins, so most flies become nothing more than a few strands of feathers and thread after a few fish. The innovative tier, Bob Popovics, created this fly. It is simple to tie, can be made in many colors, and best of all it can survive the punishment that saltwater fish, even the toothy bluefish, can dish out.
Materials:
Hook: 4X long shank,
saltwater
Thread: 3/0 monocord
Head: Livebody foam, covered by prismatic tape
Eyes: Prismatic stick-on
Tail: Bucktail and Krystal Flash
Body: Estaz
Weedguard: 40lb monofilament
Instructions:
Cut a length of livebody foam that will cover approximately ½ of the hook
shank.
Using the foam head as a guide, cut a section of sheet prismatic tape that is
the length of the foam head and can be wrapped all the way around with at least
a ¼ inch overlap.
Remove the backing and wrap the prismatic tape around the head making sure it
overlaps itself well and is smooth around the head with no bulges. Then add your
prismatic stick-on eyes to either side of the head. Take your bodkin or a needle
and push it through the center of the foam cylinder from front to back.
Put your hook in the vise and tie on at the rear of the hook.
Cut a clump of bucktail that is roughly the length of the hook shank and tie it
in. Add bucktail as necessary to make the tail more bulky, giving a larger
profile. Allow the butts of the hair to extend to the ½ point on the shank;
this will give the body a larger profile. Tie these in well and add a drop of
superglue.
Cut several strands of Krystal Flash and tie them in around the bucktail. Make
sure these go all around the tail so you get an even amount of flash.
Tie in a 4” length of Estaz at the rear of the hook.
Wrap the Estaz forward until you reach the ½ point on the hook shank to cover
where the butts of the tail bucktail are tied in. Once the Estaz is tied off,
whip finish and cut off the thread. Add another drop of superglue to the whip
finish to secure it.
Slide the head onto the hook shank using the hole that you made with the bodkin
or needle. In this step you can add a drop of superglue to the hook shank to
permanently bond the head in place. But it is also possible to just leave the
head on the hook shank loose, this will allow you to make up multiple colored
heads and swap them as needed making this fly even more versatile. However, this
does not work well when adding a weedguard as done in the next picture since the
head would be able to rotate around the hook shank.
If you so choose to add a weedguard to your fly you must cement the head to the
hook shank using a drop of superglue before pushing the foam head onto the hook.
Once dry, poke a hole in the bottom of the foam head at a 45-degree angle to the
hook shank so the weedguard will be jutting out towards the hook bend. Cut a
short length of 40lb monofilament and add a drop of superglue to one end, insert
this end into the hole in the foam head and bend and necessary.
This fly is probably one of the toughest poppers out there, and also very easy to tie making it a definite to have in anyone’s fly box. The size can vary from the smallest versions tied on size 8 and 10 freshwater hooks for panfish, up to 4/0 and 5/0 monsters for sailfish. One surface strike and any fisherman will be hooked on this top water fly.
Tight lines all…