# Balsa wood poppers



## DLJeffs

Back when I was tying flies at the conclaves and expos, I met a guy named Jim Freres. Really nice guy, who tied some amazing balsa wood poppers. Over a couple years, Jim and I got to know each other. He told me he always liked surface lures for bass fishing, and got interested in making his own. He researched the history, talked with several other tiers, read books and articles, and finally concocted his own process for making poppers. He sold flies to shops so he also developed jigs and tools to speed up the process and improve the consistency. After Jim sadly passed away from ALS, I wrote up the steps and had them published in a fly fishing magazine, to codify the process and to ensure Jim received the credit he deserved for these.

*Balsa Pencil Popper*
Tutorial by Doug Jeffries, March 2010
Techniques and tools and tricks by a multitude of talented fly tiers including Jim Freres, Walt Holman, Jerry Jarosik, John O. Cowen, Dave Whitlock and others


​*Tools and Materials:*


Thin foil, like the kind used on baked potatoes or Hershey’s Kisses, minimum 2” X 2”

Popsicle stick with 110 grit sand paper stuck to it with double stick tape

Brass tubing, 13/32” diameter (adjust for your popper size), minimum 4 inches long

Dremel driver, with 1/4 “ round reamer and 1/4” flat head reamer bits

Emory cloth to sharpen edge of brass tube



Golf ball



Pencil sharpener
*Tying Material:*
Thin blade, fine tooth craft saw

Balsa wood, minimum 2 inch with the grain, medium density

Hack saw blade

Tiemco 511S 4X long popper hook, or equivalent

Contact cement or rubber cement with brush

White 3/0 thread, and red 6/0 thread

120 grit sand paper

¼” 3D stick on eyes

20 minute 2 part epoxy glue

Marabou to match body

Glass rod, 3/16” diameter (to smooth the foil body)

Krystal flash, Flashabou, or Krinkle Flash to compliment tail

Acrylic paint, water base, (if you want painted poppers)



Toothpicks for applying glue





*Step 1:* Cut off a 4 inch long piece of 13/32” brass tubing. Using the emery cloth sharpen one end of the tubing to a chisel sharpness. ONLY sharpen the outside, do not sharpen the inside. If you sharpen the inside you form a taper that forces the balsa to squeeze inside making it difficult to make the balsa rods.









*Step 2: * Cut a section of medium density balsa wood 2 inches wide. The 2 inch dimension needs to be WITH the grain. NOTE: Balsa comes in various densities. Most hobby stores carry light density balsa which is very soft and fragile. You can order medium density from a wood supplier. Hard density is more difficult to punch out the blanks and sand.









Using the golf ball as a handle, push the sharpened brass tube through the balsa block, going WITH the grain of the wood. Wrap a rubber band around the end of the brass tube to get a better grip and pull the tube backward out of the balsa block. Then, use the eraser end of a pencil to push the balsa blank out of the brass tube. It’s best to make these in a production line style so punch out a dozen or more blanks while you are doing this step.





*Step 3: *Use a standard pencil sharpener set on the widest hole setting to bevel one end of your blanks.

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## DLJeffs

*A Little Excursion*: I need to take a little excursion here to show you an important tool that makes the next steps easier and repeatable. Jim Freres called this a jig. In fact he used several different jigs. This one is used to cut the bevel on the popper face, cut the tip off to the proper length, and cut the groove for the hook shank. I made mine from a piece of pine but Jim made one from Delrin plastic. YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE A JIG TO MAKE THESE; YOU CAN DO THE NEXT STEPS FREEHAND WITHOUT A JIG. The jig just makes it easier to get the cuts right and keep them square with the popper face, etc. Faster too if you're making a bunch of these.

The jig is made from a 1.5” X 1.5” (38mm X 38mm) pine and is 3 ¼” (80mm) long. It has a 13/32” (11mm) hole drilled in one end that is roughly ¾” deep. The depth isn’t critical but you want the hole to intersect with the kerf for the angle cut on the face of the popper. The angle for the face kerf is 30 degrees but you can vary it to your taste. Flipping the jig over, I cut out a saddle shaped section and then cut the face at a 30 degree angle to mate up with the face of the balsa popper. Then I ground a groove down the center of the saddle. The idea is to make a fitted section so you can quickly and easily get the popper body into the same position for making the rest of the cuts. Next, I made a groove at the shallow end of the saddle which is my indicator for the proper length of my poppers for a 1/0 Tiemco 511S. If you use a different hook you’ll need to modify this length. Finally I cut the kerf to make the center groove where the hook shank will go. Note that it is flush with the shallow end of the saddle.




*Step 4*: First insert the non-pointy end of the balsa blank into the hole drilled in the end of your jig and cut the angle for the face.









Place the angled face of the popper into the saddle side of the jig and cut the body to the proper length.









Next, cut the groove down the belly of the popper for the hook shank. Using the jig, center the popper blank, making sure the beveled end is seated squarely. Then use a hack saw blade to cut the groove. I use a hack saw blade for this because it's wider than the craft saw and you need a groove wide enough for a heavy wire hook.

You can certainly perform these steps without a jig. Just measure the hook shank length to get the popper length correct. Then make sure you are precisely centered on the belly when you cut the groove for the hook shank. It’s just easier once you have a jig made up.

Here’s a couple detail photos showing the groove for the hook. Note that you can widen and deepen this groove easily with a folded piece of sand paper. So if you err, err on the side of being too shallow.









IMPORTANT: Make sure the groove for the hook shank is centered in the blunt end of the popper. Again, work like a production line and complete all your bodies at the same time. Finally sand the body to final shape. Round the sharp corner left by the pencil sharpener. DO NOT round the edges at the face or at the rear. The rear should be roughly 1/8” (4mm) across. The reason will be obvious when you tie on the tail.

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## DLJeffs

*Step 5*: Next we need to make the popper face and indentations for the eyes. I use a 1/4 inch round reamer for my Dremel tool to make the popper face. You could leave this step out and leave the face flat and they probably work just as good. But I'm sort of a perfectionist and feel like I'm cheating myself if I skip it.

Be careful with the Dremel tool. If the bit grabs the balsa it can pull off to the side and wipe out the face of the popper. Better to go slow and easy.









*Step 6:* To make the indentations for the eyes I followed Jim's advice and made another jig. This one is simply a couple short sections of 1/8 inch craft plywood with two sections for spacers and bolt with nut to hold it together. It makes a tweezer like tool. I drilled 3/8 inch holes exactly even on the end opposite the bolt & nut.









Center your popper blank in the tweezers with the holes positioned where you want the eyes. I use a 1/4 inch flat head reamer in my Dremel tool for this step. Using the holes to center the reamer, I cut a shallow depression for the eyes. I guess the depression is roughly 1/32 to 1/16 inch deep, no more.









*Step 7*: Finally ready to fit the blank on a hook. I use Tiemco 511S, size 1/0. If you use a different hook you'll need to adjust your dimensions a little. I start white thread up near the hook eye, wind down to just past the hook point and then back up to the starting point and then whip finish and cut the thread. This thread gives the epoxy glue a better grip on the shank. Begin fine tuning the hook shank and the groove in the popper blank. I use the eye of the hook to make a slight depression where the squiggle in the hook shank will land. Just locate where the squiggle will land and push the hook eye into the groove at that point. I usually have to put a slight curve into the hook shank to get it to set flush in the groove. I keep working the groove and hook shank until I get a nice flush fit.

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## DLJeffs

Once you have the whole production set fitted up, glue them in place using 20 minute epoxy (this gives me time to fit up 6 to 8 before the epoxy starts to set up). I run a toothpick of epoxy into the groove and lightly coat the thread on the hook shank. Fit them together and then fill the groove with epoxy. Wet your finger and smooth off any excess epoxy (easier to do it this way than sand it off later). Set the poppers belly up into grooves cut in a piece of shipping foam to dry.





*Step 8*: Once the bodies are dry it’s time to go to the next step. Check the glue ups and smooth off any rough spots and level the epoxy as best you can. They don't have to be perfect but if you're planning to simply paint the poppers the smoother the belly the better. Remember the epoxy is harder than the balsa so if you use your finger to push the sandpaper onto the body you risk sanding off more balsa than epoxy. And poking lots of holes in your finger. The best way to do this is to stick some 110 grit sand paper to a popsicle stick with double stick tape. This lets you keep the sand paper flat and only sand the epoxy parts.





Next I paint the face of the popper white. It's easier to paint it now before gluing on the foil. I like to paint it white and then paint the rounded out part red later.

If you are going to paint your popper (rather than the metal scale effect) now is the time to give them a coat of paint as a primer. Balsa is extremely porous and paint will make the grain stand out. So put on a coat of white paint and let it dry. I use plain old water base acrylic. Once it dries, give it a light sanding with 120 grit and then a second coat. Once that has dried, paint the front half red or what ever paint job you want.

If you want the metallic scale effect, go to this step.

*Step 9: *Jim gave me several good tips relative to getting the scale effect on his poppers. First, use light weight foil, not the regular tin foil you have in the kitchen. The foil around Hershey's Kisses works good (that's where I got my gold ones). You can also get foil that chefs use to wrap baked potatoes. You can find it in a kitchen supply shop. It doesn't matter much if it has a pattern to it because you're going to smooth it off and then knurl it anyway.

I cut my foil into 2 inch wide strips. Then I cut the strip into trapezoidal shaped pieces - the narrow end is about an inch wide and the wider end is about an inch and half wide. This just makes the foil about the right size for the popper body and easier to work with.









*Step 10:* You can use either rubber cement or contact cement to glue on the foil. I prefer contact cement because I think it's more durable and easier to work with. But once the foil is stuck on you cannot reposition it. Coat both the popper body and the foil (dull side if you have dull and shiny sided foil) with contact cement and let dry per directions. Stick the back of the popper body into the middle of the foil section, rolling from rear to front.

Begin wrapping one half of the foil, working it as best you can to minimize wrinkles. A few wrinkles are unavoidable and not a worry because you'll be smoothing the foil out later. Work first one half around to the belly and then trim off any excess. I try to make sure I've covered the epoxy glue area with this first wrap so I ensure I completely cover the body.









Wrap the other half around in the same way and then trim off any excess leaving about an 1/8th inch of overlap. Stick the foil down all the way around.

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## DLJeffs

*Step 11*: Next, use a glass rod to rub down the foil and smooth out all the wrinkles. Glass works best because any excess glue that gets on it is easy to clean and it's very smooth. Just rub the glass rod lengthwise up and down the popper body.









Here's a shot of a smoothed body and you can see the difference between this and the wrapped version above. The thin foil lets the wrinkles almost disappear completely. After you're done smoothing the foil, use your fine point scissors to trim off the excess foil around the head and tail of the body. Then smooth down any foil edges that are sticking up or look to be loose using the glass rod again.

*Step 12*: Now we get the scale effect. Use a metal rod that has knurling on it. I use my hair stacker but wish I had a smaller diameter plain metal rod about 1/2 diameter. Anyway, roll the knurled rod along the foil body. Push fairly hard and try to only go one time in one direction. Going back and forth makes too many really tiny depressions and sort of ruins the effect.









Here’s a shot of a silver body before and after knurling. Note the foil has been glued and pressed down in the depressions for the eyes and both ends have been trimmed smooth and rubbed down to ensure they are well secured.

*Step 13*: Paint time. I use spray paint. White for the belly and black or brown or dark olive or dark blue for the back. I stick the popper onto a scrap of card board just to avoid painting my fingers. Turning it belly side up, give it a quick spritz or two of white. Stick the popper into a piece of foam to dry while you paint the rest of your batch. By the time you're done with the white you can go back and start with the color on the back.









Same process, stick the popper into a scrap of card board, turn it so the back is straight up, and give it a couple spritz of paint. Make sure the cupped face is slanted downward away from the spray paint or you'll paint the face. Go easy on the color paint. You only want enough to let it settle into the depressions you made with the knurling tool. Too much paint and you cover the metallic foil and defeat the knurling and reduce the scale effect. You can also paint the cupped face red now if you want. Now it's time to let them dry.

*Step 14*: Once the paint is dry, glue on the prismatic eyes with super glue. The sticky backside of the eyes will sort of hold but I've had too many come off on the epoxy brush so it's just less hassle to glue them with super glue.

Next attach your thread behind the balsa body. I like red for most all of mine but sometimes yellow or white or chartreuse are good too. I use 6/0 to get the strength but not build a big bulky wrap. For the tail you can use all sorts of stuff. Marabou is nice because it moves so sexy. But I've done them with kip tail, long salt water hackle barbules, and synthetics. The tail is fairly short to avoid fouling and dragging the ass end of the popper too deep. I like to add some flash - either 4 - 6 strands of Krystal flash, Flashabou, Krinkle Flash, whatever, usually to match the foil color or pearl.

Once the tail is complete, use thread to build as smooth a taper as you can up to the balsa body. This is why you left the tapered end flat rather down to a smooth point. If you made a smooth point you end up with a big knob of thread and it looks goofy. Whip finish and clip the thread. I like to put a drop of head cement on the thread but you don't have to. The epoxy is going to cover it.

*Step 15*: Coat the popper with epoxy. I like to use hobby epoxy that has the consistency of latex paint or rod wrapping epoxy. This lets me get as thin a coat as I can. Regular two part epoxy glue is too thick and heavy and drags the popper down in the water. Brush on a smooth even coat just enough to cover the foil dimples. Cover the thread wraps and popper face, trying to seal where the hook eye comes out of the balsa. Be careful not to get epoxy into the tail or it will wick in and make the tail stiff. If you get epoxy into the hook eye, clean it out now using a pipe cleaner or just pull a feather through the eye.

Put the poppers on a turning wheel to dry.





Obviously you can do all kinds of different things. If you have an air brush you can create some beautiful froggy or fishy looking designs. I hope this lengthy instruction helps explain all the steps. They really aren’t difficult. Balsa is relatively soft and a toothy fish will pretty much chew one up. If you slap it against the dock or hull of the boat it can split. But half the enjoyment is in making them.

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## Gdurfey

This is great. I guessed at a few of the steps but the details are great Doug. Thanks for posting all of this.

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## Fsyxxx

Amazing tutorial! Thank you

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## SENC

Extremely cool, thanks for sharing!!!

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## Nature Man

Great tutorial! Very easy to follow. Chuck

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## woodtickgreg

Great job on both the lures and the tutorial. Very detailed. Thanks for taking the time to post this, excellent!

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## Karl_TN

A fascinating read to see how this process is done. Thanks for sharing such detailed instructions.

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## B Rogers

Great tutorial. Appreciate you being willing to share the process.

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## DLJeffs

Thanks everyone. Balsa is great for this if you're making fly fishing poppers because it's so light weight. But I don't see why one couldn't use a similar process for making plugs from cedar or basswood. Instead of a hook, epoxy in a wire with loops for attaching split rings with hooks.

I may regret saying this but Jim Freres was from Texas, lived near San Antonio.

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## 2feathers Creative Making

May have to sample that on cedar, I am certain the poplar someone suggested would be a pain to punch out


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## DLJeffs

2feathers Creative Making said:


> May have to sample that on cedar, I am certain the poplar someone suggested would be a pain to punch out


Yeah, I doubt you can use the brass tube method to make the round blanks from cedar or poplar or basswood... Probably have to buy dowels or make your own somehow. But once you have the round blank, the rest of the method should work.

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## Mike Hill

Way cool Doug. Some guys around here a few years ago came up with a type of wiggle minnow that they (we) would throw at Stripers and Big Browns during the winter (time of lots of generation). Foam was supposedly easier for them to work. But I sure do like the looks of these "old style" wooden poppers! Going with a guide next week to go after redfish on topwater. In deference to my Dad (who I'm taking) I will probably use spinning tackle rather than fly. Guide does not have any fly rods and since we will be around the whooping crane area, I'm gonna take my camera and big glass and don't want to pay to take a fly rod. But that is exactly the type of popper I would throw at the redfish and It would give me a thrill to throw ones I made myself.

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## DLJeffs

Have a great trip to Aransas with your Dad. Redfish on surface lures is really fun. The few times we've thrown poppers at reds in the marsh, they've been in shallow areas. When they were on the deeper edges, they ignored poppers. But with that under slung mouth, they have to get their head far above the water to eat a popper. I want to see some awesome early light photos of cranes and rails when you get back.

And I agree, foam is much more durable than balsa and arguably a little easier to work with. But I find foam doesn't adhere to the hook shank as well either. I always hate it when someone unhooks a foam popper by grasping the popper body. Never fails they twist the body so it's loose from the hook.

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## Mike Hill

Totally agree on the problem with adhering the foam. Never seems to work out. I've even been known to throw the foam off the hook when casting. Proper casting form is not always available when floating along fast with high generation rates, especially in the front of the boat with trees all around. Truth be told, I use more deer or caribou hair poppers than foam. Except during that winter high generation time. The stripers and the big brown seem to want minners to satiate their appetite. 

The first time I had with topwater redfish we were over 15' water and actually up into a river a little bit. Surprised the heck outta me. This time it will be in sorta bay type conditions over grass flats in 3 to 5 foot of water. Dad likes to fish for specs with live shrimp and popping corks. Paying the guy a little extra to accommodate Dad. So hopefully at least some of the time we will be in water for specs.

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## DLJeffs

Actually, we're probably saying that wrong. The foam adheres just fine. But it tears easier than balsa, so when someone twists the body, the foam rips and then the body is loose on the hook shank.


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## Mike Hill

Probably right, but the first few that the guy came up with - he used some sorta glue that melted the foam a little and that did not work at all. We found that out on the water. We had to pull the deerhair streamers outta the fly box. Luckily I had tied up and brought quite a few with me before the "season" started.

Funny thing about our "system". The bite was not on top, but a foot or so below. The poppers were used only because of their "wiggle". We had to throw 350 grain sinking line to get them down a little in quick fashion. Lots of current to overcome quickly. Had to throw tight to current obstructions and not pull it out of their strike zone before they got to it. In that current they did not follow far!


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## Spinartist

Great post!!! I may make a few.
BWT... is that your blood on the brass tube where you're pushing it down with the golf ball??


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## DLJeffs

Thanks, give them a try.

I don't think that's blood, I think that's what's left from a red rubber band I had wrapped on there and left it for a long time. The golf ball trick works really well because the brass tube bites into the cover of the ball and it doesn't slip at all.


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## DLJeffs

Mike Hill said:


> Probably right, but the first few that the guy came up with - he used some sorta glue that melted the foam a little and that did not work at all. We found that out on the water. We had to pull the deerhair streamers outta the fly box. Luckily I had tied up and brought quite a few with me before the "season" started.
> 
> Funny thing about our "system". The bite was not on top, but a foot or so below. The poppers were used only because of their "wiggle". We had to throw 350 grain sinking line to get them down a little in quick fashion. Lots of current to overcome quickly. Had to throw tight to current obstructions and not pull it out of their strike zone before they got to it. In that current they did not follow far!


That's tough conditions for sure.


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## Mike Hill

Sometimes we'd called it "Chuck and duck". But sure caught some big fish. I stopped doing it pretty quickly as they were hitting it so hard they were getting hooked too deep and would bleed.


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