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Blockheads


Mike G

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Went out last night and got about dozen more green ones to hit my blockhead, so still effective though you had to work around all the leaves that are beginning to cover the water. After re-reading this thread and looking at the ideas expressed earlier about the posterior dressing of these poppers, I would like to offer my opinions after a season of fishing and landing dozens of both green and brown bass with these. My hook up ratio increased dramatically when I:

 

Select a hook size with a long enough shank that positions my point and barb well behind the popper and not under the popper. I also made sure the gap is slightly opened up and my point extremely sharp.

 

I found that I (like Lefty) prefer to have the hook and rear of the popper sitting downward in the water and not parallel to the surface. That means I like some marabou attached to the rear that won't enable it to float. I did wrap a single soft webby hackle on the rear as well but I was careful to always cut out that portion of the hackle that sits on the bottom of the fly so as to make sure there is no dressing obstructing the open gap of the hook.

 

These modifications, along with working it in a more subtle presentation, and the idea of waiting just a second after that initial hit to resist setting the hook results in so many more and solid hook ups.

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Guest airbornemike

Tried out my new BVK last night rigged up with my biggest blockhead, stuck 4 ditch pickels 16" to 19". The strip strip with a real long pause was the ticket, they all hit as the big hunk of foam sat :)

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Tried out my new BVK last night rigged up with my biggest blockhead,

 

Mike,

How do you compare the new BVK rod to the TiCr that it replaced? Just curious as I finally put my order in for a TiCr 5 wt blank to build on. I've got a 7wt TiCr so hopefully it will be similar in rod temperment. Thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mike G,

hope you haven't put away those blockheads yet, seems there are few pigs still willing to hit em'. In my mind I normally think that in gin clear water like today that I should be using more muted and natural colors, but then I thought, what the heck let's give this yellow blockhead a cast or two anyway. It just goes to show that I don't what the hell I'm talkin' about.

 

nn.jpg?t=1319251879

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  • 9 months later...

And to prove that you can't keep an old thread down,

 

Just wanted to demonstrate how enticing these blockhead poppers can be, the 18"+ change fish below still had a large bait fish sticking out of his gullet but yet he couldn't resist smashing my black blockhead. I have no idea where he thought he was going to put it.

 

post-485-0-46280300-1345013143_thumb.jpg

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  • 5 years later...

Bump. A recent interview featuring Leftyreminded me of this Meeting of the Minds in the past. Since photo bucket ruined it, I will be patching it up soon.

 

Also I will post the interview link soon.

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Great question, Mark.

 

The squared off face of the blockhead has more surface area; thus maximum disturbance in proportion to the body size. You have to decide if you want that disturbance.

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On calm or still waters I don't always want that big pop but if you're looking for aggressive big fish and or in faster water, it works well. You can tone down the pop by more subtle strips but what I think sometimes turns them on is when you get the strip just right and you spray water forward, Lordly watch out. Ha

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Spin can be a problem unless your bug head is torpedo shaped with the eye centered at the tip. The Blockhead eye is off center and the face slopes forward.

 

A simple fix is to use a heavier tippet; its stiffness will resist twisting. I know as a carryover from thinking "fine and far off," I used to use 6# mono (3X) for tippet material. A standard chart will tell you to use 0X (10#) for size 4 to 1/0 flies. Since bugs are bulkier, you might go larger too.

 

tippet-sizes.jpg

 

The heavier tippet also turns over bigger flies nicely. In this case fly fishermen have to match the tippet (leader and line also) to the fly.

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Two things,

Mark, I generally get the most spin out of my surface flies when when they have "wings" that stick out to the side such as on a dragonfly imitation which will create a propeller like spin or a flat fly such as a gummy minnow. If you are not adverse to micro swivels, that will work along with what Mike said, beef up the tippet and use a stiffer tippet like Maxima. Also, try to keep your false casts to a minimum as well.

 

Mike, that chart has been around forever and I would love to know who first put that out, was it originally for dries? I have my doubts about its usefulness in that I can toss a size 12 dry or a size 16 nymph that has a tungsten bead and some additional .030 lead wrapped that creates a far heavier fly than the 12. I'm sure it's a good starting point though.

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Mark,

 

I see you used Flickr as a host for your pic. How did you do that?

 

Rob,

 

The charts are very relative especially when it comes to lb test. In A dry Fly Code, 1950, Vince Marinaro talked about the finest tippet material he could get 5X. It broke at 1/2 lb.

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Mark,

 

I see you used Flickr as a host for your pic. How did you do that?

 

Rob,

 

The charts are very relative especially when it comes to lb test. In A dry Fly Code, 1950, Vince Marinaro talked about the finest tippet material he could get 5X. It broke at 1/2 lb.

 

Starting from your photostream, click on the image you want to share. When it pops up it should be in a black or grey background. Look in the bottom right hand corner, there are 5 icons. If you hover your curser over them a little window should come up and tell you the function of each. The third icon is an arrow pointing to the right. this is "share". Click on that and a window should pop up. It will say:

Share to:

and it will give you the option to

Share (facebook, twitter and and other anti-social media)

Embed (I am not sure what this is for, maybe a document or web page)

Email (it will launch an email with the image)

BBCode.

 

Click on BBCode.

Below it will be a window with the URL and all the HTML it will be highlighted for you, so just grab that (Cntrl C on PC or Cmmnd C on Mac)

Note before you do it will give you the option below the resized version below, it's a drop down menu- it will actually give you 12 options in size which is cool.

That's why I always upload full size images.

 

Then you just paste that URL into the body of your post.

Just put it in straight up- no additional tags. and your image will embedd in the post.

It's a beautiful thing.

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