Pick a Fly-Fishing Popping Bug in Fresh or Salt

You land the bug. Let it sit for 10 seconds. Don’t move it. Light a cigarette, as the old joke goes. Then, twitch it once. Set the hook. Unless the fish has already struck. That’s what bass and bream fishing with a fly rod and a popping bug is all about.

Hard Poppers

Most Florida fly fishers have bought the venerable Gaines poppers which came on the scene in the late 1940s. The No. 6 bugs were most popular. The Old Joe was a cup-faced standard. The company also made the Sneaky Pete, with a slanted front nose that makes the floating bug dive when you strip. Bass and bluegills hit them with gusto. Exotic panfish like Mayan cichlids tear them up, too.

Everglades fly fishers such as the late Judge Jack Allen, who guided the canals of western Broward County, came to prefer homemade popping bugs with durable balsa heads and slight cupping which creates ample sound but is easy to lift off the surface to recast. Jack added a monofilament loop or double-pronged weedguard to fish the grassy and lily pad-lined banks of Everglades canals. Tails were either splayed chicken hackles with marabou collars and a bit of flash.

Foam Favorites

Though the Gartside Gurgler has become the rage in the past few years, it’s creator, the late Jack Gartside, made his first ones in 1988, and field-tested them in the Bahamas that year on jack crevalle and tarpon.

Gartside’s originals were made of foam strips (2mm thick) cut from foam sheets, now more available in hobby shops and many fly shops and online sources. Some tyers bind two strips for extra bulk, and more buoyancy. The fly is much easier to cast than most traditional cup-faced poppers, very aerodynamic especially when tied with stiff bucktail for the tail.

A Gurgler tied on a standard or X-long hook, and from three to four inches long, is perfect for bass and most saltwater inshore fish. Snook, redfish and tarpon love this fly, and it seems the Gurgler’s softness make the fish less likely to spit it on the strike.

Keep in mind this fly can be considered a popper, particularly when tied with a longer, wider and stiffened (with export or head cement) lip at the front. The lip can be a single, or “doubled” as Capt. Steve Huff’s variation—the Hot Lips. Huff adds a smaller lip (same foam material) to complement the top lip. It creates more sound than a one-lip Gurgler and excels in muddy water of the Everglades backcountry for tarpon and snook.

Deerhair Bugs

The king of deerhair bugs is the Dahlberg Diver. Pop it or swim it under the surface, the Dahlberg imitates a frog primarily, especially when tied with splayed chicken hackles. With a longer tail of hackle, bucktail or rabbit strip, the diver can be a snake or lizard swimming on the surface. Famed angler Larry Dahlberg originated this fly for bass, but it has taken pike, even muskies, and in time it became a standard for many saltwater fly fishers targeting snook, tarpon, red drum and spotted seatrout.

I have fished the Dahlberg Diver for over 40 years. It shines brightest for me in backcountry creeks and canals of the Southern Everglades for snook. Legend has it that pioneer Glades fly fishers plying the Tamiami Trail canal would stop their vehicles wherever the most leopard frogs were crushed by traffic on the roadway. Snook, especially big ones, relish a fat, lively frog kicking across the water.

Other deerhair creations deserve mention, many of which have long histories. The great Dave Whitlock created a number of terrific, “artsy” hairbugs, some of which pop due to their flat face. Examples include the Whitlock Hair Bug (deerhair), and hard-bodied cork creations such as the Whitlock Air Jet Bug.

The Gerbubble Bug is a classic topwater bass fly that can “pop” but its draw is its buggy profile, with its many feather hackle tips jutting out from the main body. It was developed by Chesapeake Bay angler Tom Loving in the 1920s for tidal largemouth bass.

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• This article was featured in the July issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe.

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