Trout on Panfish Poppers

I just posted this thread over in the NGTO forum, and thought you guys might be interested or amused as well as I have been. Here is a tidbit about some fun fishing for you. I have been on the river the last four out of five nights, and have been smashing the trout on panfish poppers. All the trout, so far as I can tell have been cookie cutter stockers, but I will be tickled pink if I can coax a wiley ol' brown to smash a fly that looks like a circus peanut.

The bite doesn't turn on good until about 8:20, so you have a very, very narrow window to make it work. You can still fish at night, but fishing poppers at night is darned near impossible since you cannot see your drift and what your line is doing. We have been having some really decent light cahill mayflies coming off in the evening right before dark. These are fairly sizeable mayflies. When the dark-thirty bite turns on, the trout are nailing the mayflies and other tiny beings that evidently my eyes cannot make out in the dim light. Action has been fast and furious at last light, and the last few days have just been a blast.

Each time I go out, I get a ton of hits on the popper in a half hour. Usually something like 30+-. About half of those are coming on the popper, and about half on the olive micro leech I drop about 14" back. of the 15 +- bites on the popper last night, I only hooked five, and only landed two of those. The rest of the fish landed are on the leech, and it seems like I am getting a better hook set on them than on the popper at the initial hookup. I only land a few each time because the trout have a hard time getting the hook. Last night I tried trimming the rubber legs down, but it didn't help as far as I could tell. I plan to try some micro poppers next. Maybe some foam hoppers as well. I've just been after the trout with poppers because, well, its fun. And weird. And different. I know I have dries that would most likely work better, would actually match the hatch, and result in more hookups, but its just fun on a popper. Give the dark thirty bite a try this week with some poppers if you get the chance. Might hang that big brown you've been after all week!

Tight lines folks, and have fun!

I've caught stockers on Winfield Scott using poppers before, but never tried it in "real" trout water.

Caught a few one year on the Nantahala DH, just for kicks. They liked a blue one the best, but probably would have taken anything. Taking a bunch of them on poppers though? I haven't done that. Sounds like a good time, lots of laughing and hootin' probably, at least if it was me.

A blue one would probably have worked for me just as well the last couple days. I went up tonight to try again, but the water was very high, fast, and dirty. The top water bite was off tonight. I did manage several blow ups on the popper. Seven or eight I believe, but none got the hook. Before I fished the evening bite I was looking for a big brown with my spinning rod. I ended up landing a 15.5" brown, which was my PB trout from the WMA. I caught it on a YUM 2.75" crawfish with a tube jig hook in the tail end of a fast, deep run. Gonna give the poppers a go again tomorrow if the water level dies down a little. Rain is in the forecast though. It had the top water bite off a little but there were still mayflies on the water again tonight.

northgeorgiasportsman said:

I've caught stockers on Winfield Scott using poppers before, but never tried it in "real" trout water.

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I'm fishing these with a streamer type drift. It's not the easiest, and you have to be selective with where you fish. I'm fishing the biggest pools I can find, and casting them across, or down and across,and letting them swing like a streamer. I'm trying to cover the water and use them to swing the leech. I've found that if I cast upstream with them, the weighted leech ends up dragging them down, so that's why I always end up fishing them across or down and across, and usually with a mend if the water is fast. It's not an exact science, as I'm still learning, but it is indeed fun.

When I was a kid, eons ago, my dad urged me to throw poppers if the trout refused other standard offerings. He grew up fly fishing the mountains of New Mexico and swore poppers for trout were the secret deal.

My next trip to my favorite trout water wasn't going well. The fish had lock jaw for sure. I had five tiny poppers my dad had bought for me through LL Bean, I believe. I tied one on, make my first cast and it was like someone threw the switch. The trout wouldn't leave them alone.

Thanks for the post, I hadn't thought about poppers and trout in many years. Good times.

I've never thought to try a popper, i did however run out of bait on a stocked creek when I was young, I ran my hook through a cigarette butt that I found and killed them, I've also cleaned stocked trout and found rocks in them, and a little bit of anything you could imagine.

Still been at it. I've been fishing poppers for trout nearly every night for two weeks straight now. Nailing trout on them most every night unless the water is very high and fast. That seems to turn the surface bite off.



Some folks on the NGTO forum suggested that maybe it was because they look like trout pellets, so I made them this photo collage. The center picture is my hand holding the main popper I have been using lately. The left two are pictures of a mayfly, and a yellow sulfur fly. The right it trout chow? We can reasonably assume that the trout are eating them simply because they look like bugs.

KK, you hit it. They look like bugs struggling in the water. In low light, they are easily seen and motion sensed. Large flies pushing water can catch big fish in the dark. Gil

I am going give a popper a try this week in the Mtns during
late evenings.