Frech W-Y Popper

[Eric Roach]

Does anyone happen to have a photo of an original Frech W-Y popper? I'm trying to get an idea of what his cupped face looked like.

Thanks in advance.

[numbskull]

Be aware the weights in the article text are incorrect, supposedly the diagram is correct and uses larger weights.

On the ones I built I used a full cup face from a large 1.25" Salty Ball rotary rasp. If I did it again I'd make a much shallower cup. The plugs are very heavy, @ 4oz as I recall. I used birch which may have added weight.

[stripermaineiac]

I beleive he poured his weights in. so there is a difference in the plugs. the ones I have are 3.5 oz and I think were made of either cedar or pine.Had them for a very long time. LOL

[iamskippy]

I have not read the article, do these float?

[Eric Roach]

He mentions they swim if crawled or swung in current, so they sink.
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[vineyardblues]

I can take better pictures if needed

[Eric Roach]

Peter -- thank you very much for digging those out.

Those pics' are exactly what I was looking for, but would you mind measuring the length and width of those? I can see those are truly Willie Young originals; Frech's version seems to be chunkier.

Man, those cups are shallow. I'm going to have to find a different surface to burn into the face and/or not go so deep (like in the foam green/white one.)

Thank you again.

[vineyardblues]

These came from Jacks shop at his home,I sent one to W.Y to have him Put his name on the lure.
All the lures are odd sizes, poppers,swimmers etc.A nice group of lures
They came from Langs auction
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[vineyardblues]

These are a tad thinner about 1inch,
All of them are 3oz the one with the decal eye is 3.6oz and 6 inch long
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[Eric Roach]

Those are some nice pieces of LI lure history.

Thanks for taking the measurements.

[iamskippy]

Wow thanks VB! I see some nice plugs coming out of this thread....
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[vineyardblues]

TT

[ProfessorM]

hoader.

[Eric Roach]

This is a through-wired version of the W-Y. The dimensions are specific to Frech's diagram, but I had to guess a little on the lead slug weights. They ended up about .75 oz each, and the total weight (hooked but not epoxied) was a hair under 4 oz.

I fired it into some heavy surf to see how it popped. It obviously needs to keep moving to stay up top but it wasn't a struggle.

I brought it out to a measured field to see what kind of distance I could get out of it. It cast between 80 and 100 yards on a standard overhead thump.

It wobbled noticeably on the majority of casts. I'd like to think this popper could consistently cast at 100 yards and maybe cross 110 yards or so if the wobble were eliminated or at least reduced.

I'm going to try to drop the weight a shade and get the slugs a little closer to mid-line to null the wobble. It might help to reduce the hook sizes a bit -- the 4/0 treble and 6/0 siwash are pretty big.

If anyone else has any ideas to improve cast-ability, I'd love to hear them.

[stripermaineiac]

Eric, Drop the belly hook to a 3/0 an keep the 6/0 tail hook. you'll loose some of the wobble. Careful with 5/0 an smaller siwash as many of them bend way too easy.Not like the old ones that were the standard at 5/0.

[Swimmer]

Originally Posted by vineyardblues

TT

Hi my name is Peter and I have a ..............
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[Eric Roach]

Thanks, Ron. I'll try that and see how it goes