Upperman Joe Brooks Popping Bug.
The popper in the photograph below is part of the earliest series of saltwater flies ever created in our country. It was tied by Bill Upperman of Atlantic City, New Jersey to Joe Brooks’ specifications and appeared in Joe’s Salt Water Fly Fishing published in 1950. Joe would use a white version of this same fly to catch his world record 29 pound 6 ounce striped bass out in Coos Bay, Oregon.
The Upperman Joe Brooks Popping Bug rode a 3/0 Z nickel hook, the finest of its time, and is through wired. The painted body is a 1.5″ piece of round balsa wood. The face is flat, and the tail is 3″ of bucktail. The eye is painted on. And check this out! I think there is a tooth hole from a bluefish under the eye! You got to love it.
