April FOTM - The NYAP

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Stephen Bradbury
Club Member
Posts: 232
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:26 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

April FOTM - The NYAP

Post by Stephen Bradbury » Mon Apr 26, 2021 11:01 pm

This month’s fly of the month is the NYAP (Not Your Average Popper) originally developed by the guides from the Alphonse Fishing Company to use when targeting the big GTs that frequent the remote Seychelles islands like Alphonse, Cosmoledo, Astove etc. This fly is a very effective popper fly that can be used to catch a variety of surface feeding fish including all Trevally species, Queenfish, Cobia, Mackerel, Tailor, many Tuna species, Mahi Mahi, Australian Salmon (Kahawai), Yellow Tailed Kingfish etc etc. With popper flies colour and flash are largely irrelevant, but there are three basic rules that I believe should be followed when tying them. (1) the foam head should be big enough to float properly (take the weight of the hook etc) and of the correct shape to push water when retrieved, but not too big as this will make it hard to cast effectively. (2) The tail should be an opaque material, not transparent so the fish will see a moving silhouette shape from underneath. (3) The hook gape should never be compromised to increase hookups.
Recipe: in order of tying.
Hook – size 2/0# - 8/0# Gamakatsu SL12S (6/0 in the fly pictured).
Thread – Flat waxed 210 denier, white.
Tail – Tie in 1 small bunch of white bucktail topped with a tapered bunch of holofusion fiber, followed by another small bunch of bucktail on top (usually a slightly darker colour for some contrast). The total tail length should be around 2.5 – 3.0 times the hook length.
Head – Cut a head of desired size from a sheet of 8-10mm thick foam (high at the front, low at the back), make a groove in the underside of the foam head with a stanley knife or by heating your bodkin or a stiff piece of wire and melting it in. Then glue the head on top of and slightly around the hook shank and tail with epoxy glue or UV resin (hard). Ensure the head is glued perfectly square (vertically) to the hook shank so the fly will not spin when being cast. You can add colour if you desire at this stage to the upper half and dorsal area of the foam head with coloured markers and colour the front face in red.
Eyes – Stick on holographic silver eyes one each side of the head, size to suit fly.
Apply some 5-minute epoxy or hard UV resin finish over eyes and front face of the head to make the fly a little hardier.
Tie NYAP onto a 40lb-60lb monofilament bite tippet with lefty’s loop knot to allow for maximum movement. Usually retrieved using large, long single strips or fast with a double overhanded strip.
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Stephen Bradbury
Club Member
Posts: 232
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:26 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Re: April FOTM - The NYAP

Post by Stephen Bradbury » Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:34 am

The following photos are how I cut the foam NYAP heads from foam sealer strips (for polycarbonate sheeting) available from Bunnings. I personally like the heads to be approx 10mm thick.
Attachments
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