BilletHead

Boobie, Not really sure in my part of the state. Fast warm up? Not even seeing much around. Never tried late snow season hunting. Frankly wore plum out from general season and ready for a rest. Still seeing many migrating canadas, paired off local canadas and white fronts too. Good luck and maybe this upcoming weekends cooler weather will make a change for you, BilletHead

I sure will XP 590. We hit the little pond yesterday for a spell and did good again. Give me a little time and I will take some pictures. BilletHead

Yep Al once you see your first one, the real thing there is never a doubt what it is. I really dislike the term "Water Moccasin" which for some is a catch all for any water snake. Cottonmouth is a good singular word for one snake in particular. I like snakes and they are more predictable than some people . Thanks for the kudos for the photo Al, BilletHead

As long as there isn't any Caliber vodka in his sippy cup . BilletHead

Well hello there Mr. Fishinwrench, Though you might like a nice cottonmouth smile today . BilletHead

Well after Wily's report kind of started a fire under me. Then Curtise wanted to know if i wanted to make the trip to Oklahoma. You bet and we planned the trip. Knowing the rivers would be pretty low decided to put in at twin bridges and have the option of either the Neosho or the Spring to run up. Did not get and early start and the ramp was pretty full. Guys were cleaning cats already I suppose they had been running lines. At the launch WT was bouncing between 46 to 48. Used Curt's boat this trip. As per Wily's report made the choice of going up the Neosho arm. Most of the boats were heading that way. We were clueless, normal for me anyway and I am beginning to think Curt may be that way at times. (he knows what I mean after this morning before he left his house ) Sorry Curt I will never tell anyone! Slipped under the first bridge and began to see some trollers. We rigged up to drag some cranks through the water and watch others. Right away Curt got three and got his clicker clicking. I changed to a deeper runner and scored too. Thought we found a school and tried to vertical jig, turns out no love on the jig. Caught a few more dinking around pulling cranks. Lots of boats doing the same and others disappearing up river. WT by then tickling around 50. Three guys came by and asked how we were doing. We told them and they suggested we go up further and look for more boats. Finally rounded a bend to see several in a row we putted by some were hooked up as we gawked. Tried there and caught a couple more. Then went up river more to where the guys had described. Pulled more cranks picking up one here and one there looking for a concentration. Noticed some fellows working a bank so we started too and began to catch pretty well. Spent the rest of out time there even breaking out the fly rods. Each of us scored on them but the wind and depth and the way the fish were scattered was not too conducive for the long rods. We finally hit almost 54 degrees before quitting. My clicker hit 18 and Curts hit 19 and we both know we had forgot to click from time to time as it was pretty exciting to be catching whites so early in the season. I am guessing we easily passed the 40 fish mark. Some were pretty small and some pretty nice fro early runners. Where were we exactly? First time on that river so don't exactly know but I can tell you it was maybe two miles upstream from the Statue Of Liberty. Yep you heard that right and any of you that know that lady liberty and where she is will know where we were . Curt took the time to snap one photo and I did not break his phone camera, BilletHead

I am sure You know Ham our motives are clearly our own. Now if I remember to click the clicker every time. That will be the challenge. Pat has her own clicker. I think she thinks I am crazy. This year we are working on forty years, she knows I am kind of touched . BilletHead

Hit the same pond Mrs. BilletHead and I fished last Saturday afternoon. Boy was it windy trying to throw with the fly rod. 23 bass came to hand and I stood in one section of pond bank that was ten foot long. Got one nice one. 19.5 inches long. All fish came off of the articulated worm. used the purple one with a black head until my bad knot came undone on a fish then changed to a straight purple one. So yes I have been counting fish this season. Why you ask? Well some count to see how many and what species they catch. So I thought I would start counting just to see how many I catch in a year. IF I REMEMBER I am kind of forgetful. Another fishing buddy told me pond fish don't count. HA I am going to tell him tomorrow only fly rod fish count . He gifted me a clicker last year. Here is to hoping I out click him! Here is the only one I took a photo of today, BilletHead

You bet thanks Wily. Figured it will still be some time for the real run to begin. Guess they are gathering for a push some time. You just got my anticipation up a few notches. Funny your post came this evening just a couple hours after a friend and I had been talking about the rivers over there . BilletHead

Thank you Mr. Wily, Know the boat traffic down that way. Spent a few trips out of highway 10 ramp last chasing whites on the Spring river. Excited about some repeat performances this season. BilletHead

More cooking here today, some for eating today and some for later. Started off cooking a rather large batch of meat for carnitas. Had legs, thighs and wings from four wild turkeys. In the pot they went with bay leaves, crushed juniper berries, cracked black peppercorns,cracked coriander seeds, cumin seeds dried hot peppers and water. Then after a small boil it was a simmer for four plus hours. Before, After the cook, Will let cool and put in fridge for the night. Tomorrow will remove meat from the bone. Did five pounds of goose jerky a couple days ago. Got the slabs cut into strips. Netted maybe two pounds after smoking and drying. This batch was hot flavored. Hot right off the bat on the tongue and then a nice warm finish, Mid morning snack of duck prosciutto and blue cheese. Got this blue at hivee. Glacier Penta Creme. Good stuff. The Mrs. Is a bit put off by the slight funk of the prosciutto. I have hope for her though as she used to gag at the taste and sight of blue cheese. Now she thinks she is a critic of that cheese liking it as much as I do , Finished the day of food with wok work and fragrant sichuan duck. Nice happy bellies here, BilletHead

Thanks for the report Wily, Was it white bass you were chasing? Looking at getting out more soon. BilletHead

Not real informed about points out of our area John. Quartz was used where there was nothing better to work with. This being said materials were traded and we would call that and exotic material if not found locally. Their have been documented cases here in Missouri where exotics like obsidian points have been found. Closest place it could of came from is Yellowstone park area. As far as the person that may of made the point you found who knows. Depending if the point was prehistoric or historic made. We can only guess if made before modern man contact (prehistoric). After modern man made contact with the indigenous peoples (historic) then there are records of the tribes who made the types of points. Now to my hoarding of good material for knapping. Heck the Mrs. has been known to pick up chert and check it out. Hey will this one work she will ask? HA, she is as bad as I am. Did you know that all we have here in the states is chert? No flint. Flint is from other countries. I think mainly Europe. What makes Flint is the content of silicon. We are blessed here in the Midwest with some of the best material for knapping. Especially some raw materials. With heat treatment you can make some cherts better but more brittle if taken too far. Yes prehistoric peoples did thermal altering of cherts. Yes I have a kiln and have done it too. A roaster electric cooker like you cook turkeys with work also. BilletHead

Yes Al Dalton points are neat finds and the oldest point type we have in our collection. Have a Dalton drill too. Next oldest is the Breckenridge which is found to be in context right above the Dalton. When a Dalton were resharpened it was on the right side and the Breckenridge resharpened on the left creating a bevel. Then we have a Scottsbluff right after the Breckenridge. Then other various points right down the line to historic and to the most recent small arrow points. The Material on the Smith point pictured is Jefferson city chert (banded variety) The brownish streaks are grainy and in places caused the percussion flakes to terminate and cause a step fracture where they stopped and did not carry through. I used to flint knapp a bunch. Just don't anymore. May get back into that someday. Hunted and gathered chert for many years and have a couple thousand pounds or more rat holed. BilletHead

What a wonderful day, A bit on the windy side but wonderful none the less. Got the jet serviced and had been told by a river expert that he thought my motor was set a little low so it was raised during the service. Got it out yesterday just for a run up and down the river to blow out the cobwebs. Ran well and even picked up some speed with the raise. Then today not getting an early start letting the temps rise some we hit another section of the river. Mid forties water temp at the ramp but the farther up the river we went it cooled until forty one. We broke out the fly rods and did some casting with no catching. I felt good to have the long rod in hand. We then hit a favorite bank for a little peek. Mrs. BilletHead scored with a Dalton base and a Smith point. When finding the Dalton base she did a mini I found one dance, the Smith got a better butt shake dance but I was more excited with the Dalton find. We headed back to the ramp to see it backed up with loading out and in with fisher people. Man what a mess when folks are launching for the first time of thier season. We had three ahead of us. A small snafu in one craft. Three in the boat going to launch. Guy started the motor and tried and tried to get it off the trailer. Screaming at another asking did you unhook the front? Yes was the response from the lady. He checked anyway. Then he revved it up again still not coming off. He than screamed to the truck driver pull it out. Up the ramp they went until someone hollered hey your tie downs are still holding the back down . Finally we got off the water and headed home. Home we unloaded the boat, took out something to thaw for dinner and headed to a pond. Strung up the long rods and proceeded to work our way around the pond. I found the bass and got the Mrs. next to me and we caught and caught and caught a few more. A small transition from deeper water onto a long shallow cove. They were all stacked on the break and very active. We caught twenty bass and one bluegill. Fish were in maybe two foot of water and even had some follow up our fly right to the top when lifting for another cast. Pretty fun day and start to our season. No monsters as they varied from a foot long to the biggest maybe fifteen. Pat got hers on a olive woolly bugger with a barred orange hackle. My fish came on an articulated worm with black head and purple body, Life is good in BilletHeadville. Came home and grilled duck, BilletHead

A couple of freebees for one of you lure re conditioners. While out prowling on the river today got out on the bank for a stretch and walk. Stumbled on these. Not sure if anyone wants these for your hobby but if you do someone just let me know and I will get them on your way. Yes one is a wart but not sure if it is one of the coveted ones and the other just a cheapo but may be a practice one, BilletHead

Oak leaves from the back yard. And yes know may have to add some lime. Nothing much grows under my front yard walnuts. I really don't like them too much any more, BilletHead

We love just a big baked potato for a meal. Butter, S&P, some grated cheese and diced onions. Billethead

Those are awesome, Thanks for sharing those panfish pigs, BilletHead

Guess we should get the season started. First of all I am not going to listen to that Ness guy and start tomatoes and peppers too early again this year . After Tho1mas said it soon is time though for lettuce and onions. Wanted to amend the soil in the big raised beds. I have a friend who lives in Wichita and every year he has a big garden. He gathers all of the fallen leaves in the neighborhood that his neighbors will give him. He dumps them into his garden and tills them in. He does this in the fall and I wanted to try but did not get it done until the last few days. The little toy tiller ground them in well . Here is one of the beds with eight or more inches of leaves, The other one that I have tilled the leaves in, Both look this way now and I will turn and grind them in a few more times before the season planting. This should fluff up the soil and begin to break down. I should of done this like last Fall but hey I get busy and have a one track mind during that part of the year. If I can find the bagger and cover for the push mower I think I will mow and mulch some leaf piles and break more down to till in, BilletHead

Agree with separate boots and trying on first but am on the other side of the fence on deciding a final size. We like more of a loose fit as we layer up under the waders for the dictating weather conditions. Besides baggy waders make us look slim and trim while wearing them . Shawncuz do you feel like you are in wader overload right now? BilletHead

I think I have the tablecloth mystery figured out. Got to be at his sweetheart's place. Ness is now dining in a high class establishment . BilletHead

We love our Simms and have never had any real trouble from them. They have a 30 day no questions asked replacement. After that the first year if it is a manufacture defect they will repair. We have never had a manufacture failure. Any problems we have had was our fault. Pinholes. I have fixed them myself. We did after quite a few years buy another set each when we found a good deal. We then sent in our originals for standard repair. They charge 40 bucks plus shipping for standard repair and 65 bucks for advanced repair. The Mrs. waders they charged if I remember right the 40 and they put new tape on the seams and found a pinhole or two. Mine they did the same plus replaced the boot foots and gravel guards. Cost me the 65. Both pair we still doing fine when we sent them in but now they are like brand new again. BilletHead

No input or nothing I can share as I don't fish there but I like your picture . BilletHead

Welcome to the board LibbyGrace, Like the fellows above said many fish to chase wit the fly rod around here both cold and warm water species, ask many questions and the people here and the cumulative knowledge will get you a variety of answers. As far as Yellowstone and the area that surrounds it we have some knowledge also. When you are ready to go PM Mrs. BilletHead and I. Depending on what you want and are able to do we can get you into all four species of cutthroat in Wyoming. One species will be a drive to more of the South West part of Wyoming but the other three can be caught in a a shorter drive. The four caught will get you a cutt slam in Wyoming. Are you going to be one of the young people that will be working in the park for the Summer? We actually met a young lady working in the park at one of the restaurants that was from Springfield as we grabbed a meal traveling through the Park the Summer before last. Good luck on your adventure young lady, BilletHead