BilletHead

Your in the run for the popper too Wrench. Oh yes leaving right now for river "X" BilletHead

Nice John. I think we will pick a few tomorrow, BilletHead

You too Ralph. We leave soon for our trip, BilletHead

Which reminds me I got to do some goose jerky.

Mhowerton just sea salt. Thaw out the breast halves and give a salt to both sides. Try to make sure the meat is about room temp when you slap them on the grill. Good fatty skin is the key I think. Skin side down for a spell. Figuring out timing is the key. If they flame up I put the top on to put out the flames. Give them a flip. They should not flame on the plain meat side. Cook a bit longer and take them off to rest for a few minutes to let the juices redistribute. You want them rare but not much more, BilletHead

Thanks Ralph, Landed three this morning on Clousers. Tried out the go pro that we won in a drawing four years ago. I got the first two on video from cast to landing. Pretty funny when you get to watch yourself in replay! I guess Brad did ok with his knee this morning. So when are you going to get the back worked on? Talk about some old geezers. Will see about my deal next Wednesday. BilletHead

JD around here we find them in hardwood timber. Most of our soil is a mix of sandy/loam/leaf litter. Did find a few in the yard this year growing in grass. BilletHead

Thanks Chef RPS, You and fins and feathers Scott have ruined me. BilletHead

Ok I can hear it now that darned BilletHead and his ducks. Grilled again to top that off. Well we kill them and grill them. So just what do we do to liven the dead ducks back up? We go to the great outdoors looking for what to pair with the duck. Hummm? Thought about a reduced blackberry sauce? Hummm lets look around some more. So we hit the road to deliver some sweet corn to mom. On the way we hit one of our chanterelle patches. A bit more rain we had so we crossed our fingers that the patch had fruited again. Low and behold we were greeted with a yellow orange glow in the woods. We frantically picked and filled our bags. Pairing problem solved! Now to dinner. I grilled the gadwall as Mrs. BilletHead chopped up the shrooms and added them to hot broth on the stove and it started reducing. As this was going on fresh sweet corn began to boil. Corn a freebee too. Farming neighbor plants a big plot in with his field corn. Calls when family has picked and is get what you want. As shroom sauce reduces corn starch is slowly being added to thicken it up. When duck is off and rests some whole whete baguette bread is toasted. When all comes together the results are the bomb! Enjoy, BilletHead

I understand Ness. Mine might turn South too. We always take that chance if not it may be our record haul of what we planted. Good looking tomatoes Jason. We have some big ones too. Have picked a couple of early girls so far. Drooling for more. Have had three tomato hornworms. When I see plant tops being chewed on I just dust that plant top. Go out a bit later and their is the little creep laying on the ground wiggling in pain I hope. BilletHead

Really no Wayne on preference. Been catching on all of them. From the rain the water has mucked up and the prop popper does have an appealing sound, BilletHead

I got to do me some of these pickles. Peppers too. Bummer about some of your plants Ness. We all work hard to make the garden grow. Lots of time spent. Don't really know why but this season out garden is the best we have had. I know one thing I have done different is when tomato leaves and stems start to get the crud you speak of I snip them off. I heard the stuff travels from leaf to leaf right up the vine? Share some photos here, An couple of aerial views from the roof top. Had to spread out the pepper tubs some as they are starting to crowd each other. Some of the maters, Peppers, peppers, peppers, BilletHead

This free popper isn't a Trojan horse. No strings attached, well maybe some leader and tippet.. After the call to hit the river "X" last Evening. Made the long trip to the ramp. Then the long trip to the place. Dusk started setting in and we heard the pop and seen the water swirl we knew a fish was there. Singular as in one fish. We set up and started throwing to the sweet spot. The gear, The bait of choice, We threw and threw and nadda, zilch, zero hits and man it looked good. Finally my buddy (Rich Mack the non posting member on here) picked up his spinning rod and began to throw this big ugly wounded spook. A spook with big props at each end. He hit the sweet spot and had a blow up without a hook up. Ah hope we thought and we both began to throw with great anticipation. A few frantic throws later I hit the sweet spot. The current is so strong instantly my popper begins to swing through the spot and I began to make it pop and sputter. Then it happened a flash and take! Rich Mack said he seen the fish streak six foot to hit the popper.Downstream it went stripping slack line and then on the reel. Fight was on, had to pull anchor and drop down to land the fish. I knew it was big and is turned out to be my best of the year. I would of liked to hold it farther out like you do to make it even larger but with a bum left shoulder this is the best I could do. Camera man Rich Mack shot to photo, We went to another spot and pounded it, again nothing. No boils, no shad? We wondered is it coming to an end? Even the poor herons were flying from spot to spot seeking shad and they weren't spearing fish. We spent the fast fading light watching and listening before the run to the ramp. Heading home I was afraid I would turn into a pumpkin. it was way past my bedtime when I got home, BilletHead

Ok more responses. Good. I will update my list. Jpb your in, Gavin too like it or not. On another note do you believe in good deeds? Karma? Buddy called me this afternoon right after I finished this thread/ post. Says you want to do a late Evening hybrid trip? Duhh Yes, First Evening trip. Just got home at 10PM Story tomorrow morning and hoping photo turned out, BilletHead

No, no ,no Ronnie you are doing it wrong. You are on my list to smarty pants BilletHead And another thing. Popsicle sticks you are more EL CHEAPO than I am!

Well welcome back Ness, Yes once the finish on they pop to life. Lay off the caffeine and pizza it will steady you down Actually I have days I can do stippling and today I was shaking badly. Got it done though. For the wire formed poppers I dressed up a # 4 treble. Between the three hooks I tie in strands of crystal flash and a saltwater hackle. Again you would do as you please. Single hook maybe? I know that the fish I am dealing with the treble hook is the bomb. Here are the finished poppers. One built with a single 2/0 popper hook. Dressed with some flash, marabou and hackle. Two built with the wire forms. One with a prop and one without. These are pretty tough. I learned that if you hit a rock right hard they will chip. Now to a giveaway. Winner of a drawing will get the popper of their choice. All I ask is that you use the darned thing. Don't let it sit on a shelf to study, throw it. I have Ness and Wayne on my list. So sound off and let me know if you want a chance. We will let this go until Friday night at Midnight for the cut off. I will Phil to draw. I trust him but am not too sure about the rest of you all BilletHead

Where are you at Ness? Take a long lunch break? Epoxy time. I use two ton in the side by side tube. Devcon is a good brand just make sure each side of the mix is the clear type. You can squeeze out just what you want. I have done one at a time to four. Mix what you want and get some, EL CHEAPO little brushes. Going to throw them away after each use. I get one of those kid friendly 100 packs. Coat your popper all over. You got time to work with the two ton so don't hurry. Put it on the drying wheel, If you are doing more than one get the others on there too, While they are drying we will do some tails for two of these on the next installment, BilletHead

Ready to get creative and paint? Again this is all up to what you want in a paint job. Heck an all white or all black will catch fish but we want eye candy, well I do anyway. I know some of you on here like yellow shades for bass. It's all up to you. We won't get too wild here just a basic shad/baitfish pattern. Get your self some craft paint, acrylic again el cheapo is your friend. We will use white as our base coat. Paint your popper, I sand again when this coat is dry and repaint. This stuff dries fast. Now to making a pattern on the popper back. Rob your kids of there butterfly net or go to hobby lobby and buy some netting in the fabric department. Cut it up in a smaller size and wrap your popper. Sometimes I rubber glove up and just hold the thing in my hands, I then use some gray primer and just give it a dusting. Not too heavy just a mist. Less is more. Take the thing not moving the netting and blow on it to help dry. The thin coat will dry in seconds, then release the net, Roll it over and give it some gill red or blood on the nose and bottom. Remember just a mist, This is what it will look like, If you choose to do a bit more painting I stipple/dot in every scale, Give it some eyes too. Again just dots of various sizes. Black, white and then another dot of black. Eyes done, When dry we will epoxy, BilletHead

Ready for more are we Ness? Time to hog off some wood! OK take you block and a knife. Disclaimer don't cut yourselves please. I use a el cheapo harbor freight special. Price wise it is cheap and comes with extra blades, Work the front of the popper taking off the sides slowly. Take this from me you can't put more wood on once it is gone leave plenty of wood on the face rim. Do the same to the rear end and make a slight taper front to back. Again don't take too much slow down young apprentice, Work some more but not too much wood as sanding will do wonders. Before sanding this is what you should see. Use 220 grit and sand to final desired shape. Again even 220 grit will go fast on balsa. No two will ever be shaped exactly the same. Remember you are making a custom bait. After the 220 I go with 400, Now you could skip this step but I advise no to. Coat entire popper with super glue, front face too. I use a toothpick. The glue will penetrate the wood and harden the whole thing. Believe me this is worth the trouble. Moisture helps cure the super glue. On these humid days I set these outside on the porch to cure, Sand one more time with the 400 grit paper. Painting will be next, BilletHead

This is going to be picture heavy so please bear with me. This will be more easy on my pea sized brain. This will be a guide and everyone will tweak their building process, less painting, more painting power tools etc. These poppers are pretty good sized but throw well with an eight weight. Adjust size to fit your needs. I start by picking out my balsa. What I get is from hobby lobby and it is a bulk pack that has various sizes. I table saw the larger blocks down to about 3/4 to 7/8's sticks. I have a small miter box and saw to make this better. Angle in the ends to 67.5 degrees. Miter box has a slot for that, I will be making three types of baits. General popper with a 2/0 hook and two with a wire form. One will have a prop blade and one without. Here are the layouts. Mark to length a bit long and do the prop one a bit shorter for the blade. Before cutting to length use a dremel tool to cup the face. You can skip this step for a flat faced popper. Then cut to length, The wire forms I use are for jigging spoons. Got a bag of a hundred at Bass Pro. To keep them in line in the popper block I cut a section, super glue and wrap on my vice, Slot your popper block. I use my tiny miter saw. Keep the hook/wire slot to the bottom of your blank. Squirt in super glue and wire or hook, You can just let it set up and putty the open slot but I have found a better solution. Clamp that baby! Have some small plastic clamps and I squirt in more upper glue and squeeze it shut. You will sometimes squash the balsa on the sides but no problem it will be carved away, Try to put the clamps on the bottom corners and let it dry. When dry declamp and this is what you should have, Got to let my fingers rest before more, BilletHead

Nice haul there Tippet. We have picked a few husky cherry tomatoes and a couple early girls too. Peppers so far used are chili, cubanells and hot banana. Have not picked yet jalapenos or the yum-yum mini bells. Do have one turning from green to red. We have tried cucumbers in tubs but not very successful so we will hit the farmers market fo them, BilletHead

Thanks Brian!

Hard to tell by the photo Leonard. Is it the lobster? Never found one around here, would like to, BilletHead

Ok Ronnie I will work up a step by step. Yes I have messed some with a walker but not satisfied yet. Need to do more, still in the experimental stage. BilletHead

Thanks all for your kind words and input. I guess you all know by know this would be my favorite fighting fish. That first few runs are awesome. When they are ready to give up they do and it takes some time to revive them which I take my time to do. If bluegill got this big I would change my mind Working up another batch of these poppers. Painted and ready for epoxy, epoxied and on the drying wheel and then dried and ready to dress up. Two are made with a single 2/0 popper hook and then one will have a prop and treble or single hook. The other will be a treble or single hook only. They both have a wire rig through the body. I may do a step by step if anyone is interested. BilletHead