BilletHead

Actually, grass fed beef. I did not hunt or gather it, but I did take it to the slaughterhouse to meet its demise. I try really hard in some form to control all I can what I put into my body.

Today,

Prep is about as easy as can be Jeff.

Well @Quillback, When you say baked we say fish scampi. Lots of butter though,at least no frying involved. That's what we ate today. Really good. Sides of a baked potato from the trager pellet grill. Cesar salad with dressing made here in the house.

Yeah it is. Had to mess with them getting into the way.

They are quite useful for a quick slide them in and out. Inch markings. It actually goes to 12 inches but as you can see those crappie won't go in. And get stuck.

I ordered five skins yesterday evening from the ugly bug fly shop in Casper Wyoming. I think 1/8th to a bit smaller strip. These things are getting really pricy. Many, many moons ago I was able to get them for 10.99. They were shipped today. Free shipping and no tax being out of state. Cheapest I can find now. I have two purple, one each of crawdad orange, light olive, sculpin olive, and olive. WAPSI PINE SQUIRREL SKIN ZONKED You can get just a few here, Wapsi Pine Squirrel Zonkers | FishUSA

This time took the little 12 foot duck boat without the mud motor . Put in the two seats we use just to fish this craft. Tight quarters but we have fly fished this way for years. Use trolling motor for this boat pond hopping. The wind was down early but got crazy later on. We each strung up a rod each and put on what worked yesterday. Grinch bug sculpins. Pat used the last purple and I put on a crawfish orange one. We would fish a section anchored then move and repeat the bank. Had to weed through those stinkin green bass to get to the crappie. Bass averaged two to three pounds plus and we caught a bunch. Lots of big bluegill also. In four set ups were kept 31 crappie that beat 12 inches. Even those 12 inch fish with deep bodies are thick shoulders would not go into a crappie measure device. They would get stuck before bottoming out. Have you ever gotten a crappie thumb? It was getting really windy so we loaded the bank and drove along the dam and fished the shore where we caught yesterday. Kept another 9 fish giving us a total of 40. We had ice in a cooler and loaded the fish in it. Close to town we got more and dumped on top of those, got a drink and snack and headed home to fillet. Pat and I have a good system. Using an ironing board I fillet them and pass her the sides and she cuts off the ribs. We completed that task in 39 minutes for 40 fish. Not bad at all. Pat washed and dried those fillets and weighed them. 13 pounds of boneless fillets. Good eats!

Thanks friend.

Wait until you hear about day two trip of this place.

That fish was fried in a size 14 vintage Wagner skillet. That is 14 Inches across the bottom. Mostly bake in it but fun to fry in the beast sometimes.

Caught some nice crappie with the fly rods throwing the purple Grinch bug. Kept 12, cleaned four whole and the rest were filleted. So when I was growing up in my younger years Mom and Dad cleaned fish whole. Both of them grew up in poorer households. Fish were cleaned whole by nessisty. Nothing was wasted. This was the way I learned to clean fish until the mid 70s when I learned about filleting. I still like to revisit this from time to time. Simple seasoned flour is all you need, VID_20250415_154942921.mp4 VID_20250415_155354966.mp4 Thick backs. Sides of fried morels and corn and tomato salad.

Purple Grinch bug, kept 12 and left them biting this morning. We were going to launch the little flat bottom boat but north brisk wind and someone like in Pat forgot a jacket so we just fly fished from the bank. Going again in the morning. With boat and jacket. Part two of this in the what's cooking food thread.

Whoop whoop way to go Jeff!

OH Man I missed that. Thanks for bringing it up.

Do they have a Fall one? That time of the year I would be hard pressed to make it either.

Yes, you do Glen.

I don't know but this venue in Clinton is really nice and roomy. I liked the church in Bolivar but no room. This expo brought in people from all over.

There is a pretty good Facebook forum panfish on the fly. I read it every few days. Interesting stuff.

Yep, I would say 80 percent of what Pat and I flyfish for are warm water species. I don't care what you say the warm water fish fight harder and get bigger and taste better.

Pat and I attended the tri lakes fly-fishers expo in Clinton Mo. Today. Super turnout. Lots of vendors and tyers. Seen lots of old friends and some new ones. OAF had a good turnout. We had the pleasure to meet @tjm. Great visit with him. Then @kjackson brought me some lead for making anchors. Also some tiny hooks. Fun times ahead 😀. Got to trade fun insults with a leprechaun @fshndougPiper. Then there was the New tyer/vendor @Ryan Miloshewski. Had a good lunch from the vendor provided and attended a seminar on the driftless area. Been to the Wisconsin part and wanted to do Iowa and Minnesota. This wanted to make Pat and I go back even worse. Many neat things in the silent auction and the bucket raffle. Lost a bid on a nice assortment of dyed bucktails. Young people friendly. Good to see the young ones talking to tyers and paying attention. Ryan got hit up from one young man that was wanting to trade streamers with him and Ryan agreed.

Pat has still been finding off and on. Not giant hauls. Today some big ones.

Chicken and noodles swimming in a mashed potato reservoir with a side of fried morels.

I think USPS should be audited by the IRS. See what they think.

That's what I blame it on!