Ultimate Frog Popper tied with a Surface Seducer Double Barrel popper & slider body, Dragon Eyes, and a size 1/0 Kona Big Game Carnivore hook.

It is first light. You are sitting quietly and motionless in an aluminum canoe in the middle of a 10-acre pond full of lily pads trying not to make a sound.

You have spent the last 30 minutes of darkness listening to the insects and frogs begin to quiet down as the sun begins to rise. Thick fog permeates the still air and the water is still as glass.

Every 15 seconds you can hear a bass blow up on an unsuspecting victim. It is summertime now and frogs and tadpoles are one of the most readily available food sources in the lake... Too bad all you have in your box are Clousers, chenille worms, and crawdads. OOPS!

This frog imitation fishes super well... and looks like it will hop out of your fly box on its own.

Ken Capsey's Japeto Frog is easily one of the most fun flies I have ever tied!

The target species for the Japeto Frog is bass (smallmouth, largemouth, spotted), but pike, musky, and even snakeheads are targetable with this fly as well.

When fishing the Japeto Frog, cast to lily pads, moss, grass, weeds, or any structure close to the bank. Typically, fishing a frog pattern is noticeably faster than other topwater patterns, but observe and let the fish tell you the speed you should be moving with.

Fly Recipe

• Rear Legs: Fish-Skull Articulated Fish-Spines and Foam
• Feet: Sili-Legs
• Hook: Kona Big Popper Hook, 2/0
• Body: Craft Foam
• Head: Surface Seducer Double Barrel Popper & Slider Body, large, green chartreuse
• Eyes: Surface Seducer Dragon Eyes, Tropic, 6mm
• Front Legs: Sili-Legs

You can follow Ken Capsey on Instagram @pike_picker.

What makes fly fishing the Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota area special is this is the wild native range of warm water species.

When most people think about fly fishing Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, they think of trout. When you think of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, you think of warm water species.

We have some of the best smallmouth bass and muskie fishing in the world. It's all right here, as well as arguably the best carp fishing when it comes to pursuing them in the Great Lakes. 

The upper Midwest is such a rad area for fly fishing and there's a very small group of outfitters that are providing guided trips at an elite level. We offer single day and multi-day trips, and if you've never done a multi-day guided fly fishing trip, I'd definitely recommend one to the Midwest. It allows you as an angler to get into a groove, especially if you're a busy person that generally doesn't have a lot of time to fish. 

Bass like to party, which is what makes them the most chased game fish in the United States.

Aggressive eats, jumps, and willingness to eat on the surface make bass a fun fish to chase, especially on the fly. Personally, I think the topwater takes are where it’s at in bass fly fishing. Part of the fun is getting the fish to eat what you want it to eat.

If you’re set on getting bass to eat on the surface and it’s not working, before you give up and switch over to fishing a streamer, try dialing it back first. That’s where the topwater finesse comes into play.

As I pull back on the oars my eyes settle on a small current break with nice holding water and some overhead cover.

It’s a solid spot that has produced many times throughout my years as a fly fishing guide.

I relay the information to my clients, and what happens next is...

A) The client lands the fly an inch off the shore, lets it sit for a couple seconds, strips, pauses, and the smallmouth eats the fly.

B) The fly lands 3 feet off the shore, well short of the current break, and the client fishes the fly back to cast again.

C) The client false casts so many times that the fly is never given a chance to catch a fish, even with me frantically pulling on the oars trying to hold the spot.

D) The fly lands in the spot but is quickly stripped well out of position, the fish chases and turns off.

E) The fly lands an inch off the shore, the client lets it sit for a couple seconds, strips, pauses, but no one is home and hungry today.

The following 3 tips will help make option A more likely of a situation for you on your next smallmouth fishing trip.

Learn To Tie This Incredibly Realistic Yet Easy-to-Tie Hopper Pattern

This popper fly pattern comes from the creative mind of custom fly tyer Adam Harman. Using the Double Barrel popper body on a hopper pattern makes perfect sense – maximum floatation, keel, and water disturbance on the pop! It just works.

Without a Doubt, Golden Dorado Rank Among the Most Exciting Gamefish on the Planet To Catch On a Fly Rod If it happens on the surface, not to mention with a popper, your adrenaline levels can raise to new all-time high levels! When fishing with a popper it is not...

The Machaca Is One of the Baddest Freshwater Fish in Costa Rica, Hands Down. When I first started talking to my friends back in Florida about how awesome catching machaca on a fly was, most of them had no clue what I was talking about. So let me give you...

Michael Phelps may have 23 gold medals, but the Phelps Frog is all about bronze... Bronzebacks that is! This leggy frog fly with serious swimming action is an absolute bass magnet. Learn to tie it today.  Fly Recipe Rear Hook Hook: Fusion Drop Shot, size #1 Body Filler: Chocklett's Game Changer Chenille Legs: Fish-Skull...

Putting the new Baitfish Popper to the test!

The Flymen team hit up West Palm before the 2018 International Fly Tackle Dealer Show to fish the new Surface Seducer Double Barrel Baitfish Popper.

Introducing the Fully Synthetic Double Barrel Baitfish Popper.

Hammer a wide range of freshwater and saltwater species with the new Surface Seducer Double Barrel Baitfish Popper (which is available to you starting today). This universal, highly effective popper imitates a typical baitfish being pursued (and eaten) by your favorite predatory gamefish such as striped bass, redfish, GT’s, false albacore, pike, peacock bass, smallmouth and largemouth bass.

The range of sizes from #2 to 5/0, the stainless steel hook, and the universal baitfish design give you the ability to effectively fish the Baitfish Popper in a wide range of freshwater and saltwater fishing situations.

This is one tough and durable popper because it is fully synthetic. The foam Double Barrel body provides powerful popping action, the Faux Bucktail tail is bite proof, and the Living Eyes provide lifelike realism and an additional trigger for predatory gamefish.

Following our recent release of the Bass Bug 2.0, one of the biggest things we've done to take the Baitfish Popper to the next level is completely eliminating hard epoxy in exchange for a flexible epoxy that can take strike after strike without breaking or cracking. See the video above to see a test of a Baitfish Popper getting run over by my fishing truck. We figure if the Baitfish Popper can survive that unscathed, you'll be able to fish it hard and often in the toughest angling environments without worrying about destroying your fly!

We hope you enjoy fishing our newest popper. Catch a big one for us!

This Is the Toughest, Most Durable Popper on the Planet.

Say Goodbye to Fragile Poppers With Hard Epoxy Finishes and Hello to the Indestructible 'Soft-Bite' Bass Bug.

We're excited to now be shipping the new and improved "soft bite" version of the Double Barrel Bass Bug, which won Best Of Show – Fly Freshwater at the 2017 International Fly Tackle Dealer Show in Orlando, Florida.

Tie This Two-Headed Monster Popper!

Fly Fishing The Ozarks released a fly tying video covering how to tie this creative pattern designed by Spanish fly tyer Nacho Heredero. What a creative use of multiple foam Surface Seducer Double Barrel popper & slider bodies!

If you're like us (and if you live in the Northern Hemisphere), you're probably pining for the longer spring and summer days and the fishing opportunities that come with them.

The Double Barrel Cicada is a fun pattern to tie while daydreaming about warmer weather and will prep your fly box for late spring and early summer. This foam fly pattern is tied with small and medium Surface Seducer Double Barrel popper & slider bodies, 4 mm Dragon Eyes, a size #2 Popper Hook, and Fish-Skull Body Tubing.

Share With Your Fishing Buddies!

If you want to share this video with your friends on Facebook, use the Facebook video link.

One of the Most Fun Parts of Fly Fishing Is Designing and Tying Flies.

As a fly tying instructor, I often have clients who have designed and tied a new pattern, but there is some flaw in the design (e.g. the wrong hook, articulated when it is not needed, too big, or too small) or material selection.

These are integral parts of fly design. The large cunning fish you'll be targeting know how their food choices move and will shy away from flies that do not move naturally.

The basic principle of fly tying is to come up with a fly that imitates a fish’s choice food.

This gets a bit trickier, in my opinion, when you are imitating creatures other than insects.

A mayfly’s movement will change depending on what part of its lifecycle is occurring or if wind or weather is a factor in the hatch, whereas a creature like a frog, on the other hand, will desperately move all kinds of different ways when a hungry largemouth is chasing it. 

One of the most exciting areas in fly design is the development of next-generation topwater flies to enable the modern fly fishing angler to successfully target and land a growing variety of freshwater and saltwater gamefish across the globe.

To support this trend, in 2016 we announced our intention to create a full range of modern innovative foam fly tying materials under the new...

Continue reading

How do we get new fly anglers introduced to the sport of fly fishing?

We hear this question over and over again.

The answer might be sitting in front of us and we don’t even see it. This magic bullet is also a hell of a lot of fun for the seasoned angler as well.

What is it, you ask?

It is Lepomis macrochirus, more commonly called a bluegill.

No matter where you live, there are probably some of these little gems swimming in a pond or lake near you.

Let’s face it, trout fishing can be hard and often a barrier to getting new fly anglers off to a good start.

There's nothing better than the humble bluegill to ensure a new fly angler has a great experience and gets put on the path to success.

Putting the POP back in popper flies.

This may be the most exciting time to be involved in fly fishing!

In recent years, fly fishing has rapidly evolved at an unprecedented rate.

No longer restricted to trout or salmon, fly fishing has become "anything goes if it's on the fly," with fly anglers now able to actively target and land virtually any species of freshwater or saltwater gamefish on a fly rod. 

As fly anglers expand their horizons, the hunt for more species in widely varied types of fisheries across the world is rapidly driving the need for innovation in the fly fishing industry with specialized flies and equipment for enticing and landing these fish.

by Gary Dubiel
This may seem like an odd way to start off talking about fly fishing, but let’s chat about one of the most popular and easy ways to fish inshore saltwater, the popping cork.

You’re probably thinking, “What does this have to do with anything?!”

Maybe more than you think.

Continue reading