BilletHead

Went to a favorite pound that I have not fished in at least three years. Grabbed the 8'6wt Butter Stick glass rod I used yesterday and added to Ronnie's new flyrod thread. Kayak was loaded and I drove to the pond/irrigation lake. Sun already up should have been there earlier. My quarry was bluegill and bass were going to be caught also. As I unloaded the kayak the water was alive with bass chasing fry along the shore. I must admit I started before getting the kayak on the water catching four bass from bank before hitting the hot bluegill spot. Finally got to paddling and more bass were boated. So, my destination is a hump in the lake. When low which it is now it shows. About a five-foot circle with four to six foot of water around it. Closest shore 30 to 40 yards away. I have caught bluegill around this but many years ago again when it was really low and could find the hump. normal pool for this lake would be another six foot deeper. I put on a small pine squirrel streamer just about and inch and a half long. More of a nymph than a streamer rusty brown color. First cast it was on, fish after fish was landed. Bass eating it also. I lost count of how many I caught there. The bluegill from there were 8 to 9.5 inches. Thick, healthy and fat. Bass up to 18 inches in the same shape. I only fished one side of the hump casting to the right of it, left of it and to the center of it. I actually left fish still biting. Sun got up high and it was getting hot. I plan on taking Pat Thursday morning on her day off if plans hold. Will keep a few that day. paddled my way back to truck catching more fish and way back. All nive except one tiny bluegill. How he has escaped the bass onslaught I have no idea. There is no cover anymore in this pond. No place to hide and if you make it you have to be big. That is why these bluegills made it. I actually had a bass chase in one bluegill I was fighting in. No way he could eat it but he was chasing it none the less. Back and belly view showing how thick,

Nice looking rod Ronnie, I love to switch up fly rods. Today I tried a new one. Bought it last October at the home waters fly fishing deal on the Niaunga. An 8'6wt fiberglass Reddington butterstick. We went to Lamar city lake and caught lots of bluegill. Kept 9 of those a 9.5 redear and a 10.5 crappie. It got really windy but it was fun. This butterstick will be in the fly rod rotation from now on.

Dang that brookie is beautiful!

Strange mystery

@Quillback shared the world squirrel cook off that is in Bentonville Arkansas each year. Big deal down there including a big hunt. This is the 2019 recipe first place winner from that year. I tackled it today and had dinner ready when Pat got home from work. Really good tacos. The only thing that needs to be different. Either less goodies in the small tacos or use the bigger ones.😁. As you can tell its squirrel season in BilletHeadVille. Opening was last Saturday. I shot five starting Monday for this recipe. Thanks Jeff.

Bummer! I cannot see videos on laptop but can on phone.☹️I hope you all can see them.

Every garden needs bee hives. We are up to 12 long hives now. A 13th hive was taken to a friend's. I had gifted him a long hive last year. It did so well he split it and filled the one I put over at his house. We have caught swarms by hand this season and trapped three. We utilized some here and gifted out three. Two to a new beekeeping long time friend in Weableau. He built himself two long hives. One swarm trap full of bees will head to a Nevada beekeeping friend this weekend. I don't need any more bees this season but will leave traps out for a couple more weeks. I will gift out more catches if it happens. Lets tour the BilletHeads apiary, VID_20230602_133706694.mp4 VID_20230602_133818833.mp4 VID_20230602_133843890.mp4 VID_20230602_133910729.mp4 We love our bees and honey is a bonus.

So also in the garden and yard we try to give back to nature. Wildflowers in patches. Butterfly milkweed, coreopsis,pale purple coneflower an regular coneflower bee balm and beard tounge. Blazing star too. The great spangled fritillary butterfly are thick and will get thicker as summer progresses. Monarch butterfly have been laying and caterpillars can be found if you look hard enough. Our honeybees use the native plants too. VID_20230602_134057213.mp4 VID_20230602_134016057.mp4 VID_20230602_132526720.mp4 VID_20230602_132432756.mp4 Welcome to our wildflower garden. Took a few years to get established. Worth the wait.

Garden here is going great. Late start on some things because we had forecast of late frosts so I put some things off. The chestnut harvest will be low. The first leaves that came on got frost and freeze turning them black. There will be some nuts but catkins and few and far between. We have squash and cucumbers starting to vine on the trellis, we have sugar snap peas blooming and putting on pods other side of those are peppers, We have tomatoes, We have peppers, We have more tomatoes and peppers ,😁

I figured you might like the share. Vintage is always good.

Excellent report Les!

@Ketchup, Hey buddy I ran upon this at a garage sale this morning. Very interesting and in great shape. You are the only one that I thought of that might be interested in it. Thought I would pass it on.

Watch: Oklahoma Guide Catches Rare Melanistic Paddlefish | MeatEater Conservation (themeateater.com)

Congrats Randy!

Also Daryk FYI if you are not using a barbed hook superglue will become your friend real quick.

The lack of wind and some pretty weather was really making me itch to get out with the fly rod. I didn't care what the target was just wanted a tug on my line. Day one was on the 23rd. Not an early start. Went to an irrigation lake pumped low from last years drought which we are still in. Last fall went a couple times catching channel cat, bass and little crappie. Ham made it up and got his channel cat on the fly too. These cats hunt chasing other fish along the bank. Fun to watch. When I drove across the dam I again seen the same blitzing like last fall. This time bluegill were jumping out of the water being chased. I put on a wolly bugger and casted into the fish being chased. First cast fish on. This happened many times. A couple nice bass were hooked up then jumping and throwing off the fly. Pretty nice bluegill too. Went back next morning a bit earlier. Same thing happening. What a hoot! You would go up and down the bank chasing swirls and cast in the blitz. This day I got a good stick on one of the many Bass. Five pound one. I was keeping a few today for the table. Bass released though. Bluegill now and then caught then I hooked a personal best bluegill. A bit over 10 inches and weight of one pound. It went into the cooler full of ice with six of the smaller channels. I headed home to clean fish and have lunch the big bluegill. skipped a day then took Pat and the kayaks Thursday the 25th. Instead of casting from the bank we got to cast towards that bank. We mostly caught channels 9 each. All went back into the lake. VID_20230525_074906018.mp4 No fishing on Friday but we were back at it Saturday morning. This time took the boat to bushwhacker lake. Messed around there with small bass and bluegill but did catch some nice crappie. Kept size and made fish tacos that afternoon. Sunday morning back after it again. This trip with boat to Lamar city lake. Small bluegill and bass plus a few green sunfish. Channel cat again times two. Put three crappie into the livewell. It was getting warm and we were working back to the launch when we found the bluegill. We boated a bunch of all sizes. Eight inch length limit. We kept 20 eight inch plus to go with the three crappie. Headed home and cleaned fish. Slept in this morning and had biscuits and gravy for breakfast 🤤. Pat back to work tomorrow wonder where I should go? 😁

We made egg rolls and after that was done, we proceeded to get stuff ready for general tao wild turkey. The egg rolls were kept crispy in the oven. Finished up the general tao and put all together. Pretty yummy.

Yea Daryk and son! Thanks for sharing with all of us.

We had a surge three weeks ago and it lasted two weeks. Bunches of them all over the yard.

Oh no we lost another one. Tina Turner has left us. Love me some Tina Turner. Mad Max movies too:). And those legs!

I am thinking that red spotted is giving a full colored long ear a run for the money. Beautiful.

I never get tired of seeing those boy's smile. Thanks Bret.

Great report, Thanks for sharing.

Mighty nice daryk.

Sometimes outboards from far off lands find their way to you.