An Amazing Day Fly Fishing Poppers on the St Croix River

Greetings folks and welcome to another adventure and video along with FlyFishingWithJeff.com. Today I journey about 4-5 miles down one of the very upper stretches of the St Croix River, fly rod in hand, looking for big smallmouth bass.

This was indeed one of those days when it all came together. The wind was blowing downstream …. moving me along at a generous pace and the smallies were hungry and looking up, making for some incredible popper action. In fact, I would have to say that pound for pound, this was the best popper action I have experienced for smallmouth.

I have been using what I have termed a ‘shad-popper’ for several years now. Turns out the real name is pucker-lip popper and for good reason …. the lips on the front of the fly look like they are indeed puckered up. I bought about a dozen of the flies a few years back but one by one the pike have been clipping them off … sending me looking for more! While I didn’t find any flies I did find a video showing me how to tie the fly and in a couple days replenished my stockpile. Click here to watch me tie the Pucker Lip Popper fly.

I also hooked up with about a 2 foot musky … which isn’t large at all, but it sure was fun landing one on a small popper and not wrecking the fly. If you haven’t fished for musky then just let me say that while they are plentiful …. they are very picky eaters, so any musky is a good musky.

Remember that, if you want, you can leave a comment below or reach me by emailing me at flyfishingwithjeff@gmail.com …. and I will do my best to get back to you with a good answer.


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