How to make cork popping bugs and why you should avoid them that all costs

Our lab was undergoing a major renovation, and all stuff had to be removed from the north wing. It had been a chemistry lab for decades, but had been shut down for 20 years. Good stuff got saved, surplused, sent to other labs, or donated to high school chemistry programs. But there was still a ton of junk left that was destined for the dumpster. Our solution was to put it out on the free table for a day or two for anyone to take, and then finally send it to the junkyard. I had a moment of nostalgia when a big bag of vintage cork test tube stoppers showed up and I got the idea of using them to create some of the vintage poppers of my youth. This went south in a heartbeat.

First, cork poppers have been supplanted almost completely by foam, and I now know why. They are a pain. First, you have to shape the cork. This is done by sanding, but there really is not an effective way of holding the cork other than to run a needle through it. This may or may not hold. Once you do get it sanded, it usually has pits that need to be filled to give it that smooth surface. I rooted around the shop for wood filler and it worked, sort of.

There is one decent website that advises using an acrylic paint called ceramcote for filling and sealing. It works, but is so thick that it has to be painted on with a decent brush to not leave streaks. I had more success dipping them in a thinned mixture. But the real challenge is finding the right hook, and getting the cork mounted securely.

Cork poppers traditionally used a hump shank hook. These are still available (Mustad 33903) but this part drove me nuts because nearly every cork popper I have ever seen has a hook that seems to be about two sizes too small for the body. I wonder how they ever hook a fish. And I now know why. If you try to put a traditional cork head on larger hook, the hook diameter and shank kink are big enough to make it difficult. I ended up cutting a narrow notch to make it fit, and squeezing it back together gently in a vise after filling the notch with a drop of superglue. Most of my poppers looked like they were suffering from a bad case of eczema, but a trip to the drug store for emery boards made them look better. I then found that many, many, thinned coats of ceramcote are needed to get that nice finish you see on the racks of them that used to hang on cards in the hardware store.  And by the way, coat the hook shank with tying thread if you really want any durability. Until I did that the prototypes would just twist around pretty easily.

I have a rule never to tie more than 3 or 4 of any prototype pattern in case it does not cast, stay together, or catch fish. Those four poppers have been on the bench for weeks, and I still need a couple more coats of varnish before they are even close to being ready. Those bags of pre-shaped foam ones and stinger hooks are looking better and better. It would be interesting to know how they actually mass-produced them back in the day, because I can't envision a production process that would allow them to be sold for the ridiculously low prices they sold for. I remember 3 or 4 for a dollar.

And by the way, I do not do any hackle wraps and have found they cast better and catch as many fish with just a sparse bucktail tail.