Bottle Popper vs Cigar Popper

[numbskull]

The bottle shape casts better.
I suspect the straight shape fishes a bit better, but that's not said with any confidence.

I will say that poppers are deceptively difficult plugs to "get right".

The face angle, cup depth, and even line tie position have significant effects. The weighting scheme also seems more subtle than I anticipated. Tail heavy casts best, but belly weighted work better.

It is easy to make a plug that pops, but getting one that does so at the right speed and without tumbling is not so easy, and getting one that swims as well as pops is downright difficult.

Finally, cutting a wide shallow face on the larger ones causes me all kinds of issues. Deep faces are easy, but often create too much resistance.

[Charleston]

Weight a bottle so it slightly tail down at rest. This requires some tail weight and some belly weight. Then cut your face angle so it is at right angles to the surface of the water.
This method allows you to chug the plug, pop it vigorously or try to give is a slow "swim" A very effective bottle!

Chug the plug!

[stripercrazy]

coming from ri and near the atom's factory...I never understood why people spent the extra money on gibbs Polaris poppers...years later I found the gibbs bottle poppers were easyer for conv tackle they floated.....I don't think the fish care....but I seem to do better with atom( cigar) type popper each year

[Raven]

Originally Posted by numbskull

cutting a wide shallow face on the larger ones causes me all kinds of issues. Deep faces are easy, but often create too much resistance.

when i started fishing all i had was a striper swiper on a solid fiberglass rod and a blue
cut my line... and that equalled no more fishing except for chunkin.
(no cash for plugs then )

but,
i was addicted to the top water hit.... and seeing the big ol trash can

So, i collected ash tool handles from the trash and took them to the school wood shop lathe
and cut a bunch in a row end to end on each ash handle... later i sawed them into plug sections.

to cut my cup face:
i'd wrap the plug in a rag and clamp it in the bench vice and then using a
large 3/4 inch rasp bit in a hand held heavy drill i'd burn it in until it was Black (smoking) and it made the wood even harder
-never sealed them or weighted them
and the bass chewed -em up in the 70's -those were the days

[Eric Roach]

I wasn't familiar with the Frech WY popper so I Googled it and came across a scanned reprint of an article from Frech in The Fisherman magazine. The plans for the popper are in it. In the article he mentions it swims.

I think I'll make up a couple. Looks like fun. (Not sure how much fun cupping birch will be but I'll give it a shot.)

[PNG]

Originally Posted by Eric Roach

I wasn't familiar with the Frech WY popper so I Googled it and came across a scanned reprint of an article from Frech in The Fisherman magazine. The plans for the popper are in it. In the article he mentions it swims.

I think I'll make up a couple. Looks like fun. (Not sure how much fun cupping birch will be but I'll give it a shot.)

Birch is very agreeable

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Eric Roach

I wasn't familiar with the Frech WY popper so I Googled it and came across a scanned reprint of an article from Frech in The Fisherman magazine. The plans for the popper are in it. In the article he mentions it swims.

I think I'll make up a couple. Looks like fun. (Not sure how much fun cupping birch will be but I'll give it a shot.)

Regrind a speedbore bit to the curve you want. Make the pilot round so it follows the thru hole. If you feel compelled to make it really smooth you will have more work to do.