BilletHead

You got to be kidding me? Another copperhead in the BilletHead yard! We had friends over for a cook out of Goose Fajitas done in the holey wok. As I was working over the goose meat on the charcoal grill our friend Allen steps off the porch and says hey look here at the little copperhead. Sure enough right there six feet from where we were standing was this little dude. The grandkids were just here yesterday playing under this arbor. This is two in the yard plus one in the road out front of the house in eleven days. Usually we see two to three a year not in the yard but out on the road sunning. What the heck? Weather related? BilletHead says dang

Fine looking craft you constructed Stein! Thanks for letting us follow the build. I (WE ALL) are waiting for the picture of the floating boat. Totally awesome, BilletHead

I second what Birdwatcher says although I can see what Wrench says too. I have dealt with the Marine Center in Joplin and have had two Suzuki Motors from there A 40 and a 50. Very pleased with them both and the service from the same dealership. If the boat I am running now would of had that option I would still be running one, BilletHead

How about some more painting and picture overload? As some of you all know I use the copic marker system. By all means you do not have to use this! Cheap rattle cans of spray paint will work. Just harder to control the spray. We will work on my new favorite color. I think getting stuck on a favorite does more for the fisherman than the fish. Especially on top water baits. By this I mean it gives the thrower of the baits more confidence to stay with that color and throw it more. Gee wiz the fish see movement and react most of the time to feed. If they will hit bubblegum colored baits they will hit anything . We give fish bigger brains than they really have. So this one we will give a pattern by using a butterfly type netting stencil. Wrap it over your balsa bait and secure, Going to give a gray light color back so give it a shot, Dries fast, remove netting, I have been tweaking othe types of markers to fit my copic sprayer. With these I give the sides a spritz of metallic blue and green, Then a sot of red in the throat area, Done with the sprayer I am going to make stripes on the back. A couple of drops of black acrylic cheap craft paint on something I then use a toothpick for a brush. Dip the tip in and make some dots on the back of your creation spaced out. Then use the toothpick to work paint into stripes. I know they are not perfect. I am not a human C&C machine and faults give it character, Then using the toothpick or another one of your stippling tools make a pattern on sloppy dots on the side. I touch the tip on the side and then slightly drag it, Eyes next like we did in the first bait we made. Gold and black, Epoxy later! Another one. Spray again. Green, yellow and orange, Going to darken the back with the netting and olive paint, More stippling with a tool. This did not go where I was hoping but it will work, Eyes to finish it up, I did also hit a spray of red in the throat area underneath, Will epoxy later. Maybe one more paint job before we epoxy? Here is where I get some inspiration for more patterns. I do tweak them for myself and hey I can't copy mass produced perfection. I keep telling you character, http://www.tacklecollecting.com/TinyTorpedoCOLORtestforPDF.pdf Why do I get stuck on a favorite color? BilletHead

How is this for trashing out? I paid for it . BilletHead

You might as well go out to your gooseberry bush and pick those. Treat them as you do your peas and cream them, BilletHead

That is what it looked like but I did not want to shoot my mouth off without knowing. What a world we live in. Fresh English Peas farm direct from Guatemala and then straight to darned near the center of these United States. . BilletHead ate pretty trashy today

Fresh English Peas, farm direct from where? Can't read it Product of ??????? I do like raw peas. BilletHead

Good thinking we will get them back. I just cannot remember this many disappearing. for any length of time, BilletHead

Strange year for us here too. We have a grand total of two. Normally they are thick right now? BilletHead

Thanks you all, Don't have anyone to share this with but you guys. BilletHead

Dang Are you sharing this with your gal pal? That is the way to a woman's heart is through cooking they say. I had wild turkey carnitas ready for Mrs. BilletHead when she got home from work this evening. She is really happy with me right now. Probably temporary but I will take it ! BilletHead

Going to paint this one by using dots. Called stippling or as I remember from art class in high school pointillism. I learned a bunch from this site, http://www.flytier.com/stippled.pdf Takes some time to load but well worth the read. Some of my tools for this method, For the Mrs. I will be doing a pink and purple fry. Being a breast cancer survivor she likes the pink of breast cancer awareness and purple of being a survivor. We will be doing a tight pattern of dots. I will mask off the first part with a strip of painters tape, We start by doing pink dots spaced out without touching, Let dry a bit and start dotting between the dots, Again after drying some one more time. I know we can just paint it solid but what fun would that be? Leave some white showing, When dry remove tape and reinstall another strip slightly behind that, Repeat like above with purple and remove tape and do some scattered dots being it all, Now lets paint on some eyes. Using larger dot making tools we will use three colored eyes. Since we are working on a rounded side you will have to work your roundish eye on that curved surface, Add your other colors, Sign the bottom of your work. Looks kind of plain but it will really pop when we coat it with epoxy but we will do more painting before we do that. BilletHead

Lets start painting your fry, We are giving it a white base coating. This acrylic craft paint is cheap. You can spend from fifty cents on up to a buck and a half a bottle and it goes along ways, Give it a coat. This first coat will soak in and raise the grain. No worries we will sand again, After drying another sand of 400 grit paper, I repeat this painting one more time and then sand again. After that there is an optional step. I do this to strengthen the soft balsa. I know it will be coated with a final epoxy finish but I do it anyway. Use your super glue and a toothpick. With the side of the toothpick spread a thin layer of superglue and let it dry, When dry one final sanding with the 400 grit sandpaper. It will slightly scratch your finish and help the final paint and epoxy adhere to, Now we will get ready to get artsy, BilletHead

Ralda, If you go below Stockton to the little town of Caplinger Mills. West side right under the bridge you can just use a dip net and get what you want. Thick enough there yesterday the water was black and they were in a solid mass. if you are there at the right time guys are in and out netting them. just ask and I bet they will fill your bucket for you. BilletHead

After your glue sets. I give it a few minutes. Open your clamps. If it helps do some marking on the blanks . Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't but just starting it can help you. Just a rough draft, Tie to start carving. I use a small exacto. Keep it sharp. Either change blades often of sharpen often. I have a diamond hone and then drag on a leather strop to keep blades lasting longer, Start taking off sharp corners, Then taper the sides, Round off corners again, This is where I begin to start sanding some. 120 grit will hog off wood pretty quick so take your time. Start forming this way, Then start sanding the corner edges . Watch for symmetry on each side. For and aft,starboard and port. Change to 220 grit and work more getting to the final shape you are looking for. Leave plenty of wood on the front and tail end. Try not to sand to a point on each end. Finish up again with 400 grit, The body is done. Painting is next, BilletHead

OK lets glue these suckers up. Lay your hook and wire extension where you want it on the blank them press it into the balsa side some leaving an imprint. This will keep it from slipping when fitting the other matching side, Lay the other side on and press again setting the hook imprinting the hook on each side., Without glue clamp the sides tight and leave it there a few seconds. If you are doing a batch do them all. Here you can see the mirror imprints, Take one side and put a small small amount of super glue in one of the imprints. Lay in the hook and press to glue, Test fit the other side. If you are satisfied then put another small amount of super glue on the rest of the blank. Again I stress small. You really don't want excess glue squeezing out on the blank. It will soak into the wood making it hard to carve and sand. Match sides and clamp again, Here is the glue I use. Get it at grizzly woodworking. 2oz bottle goes along ways if you are going to make a bunch, Next we will start carving the blank, BilletHead

Peas you say? Ness will go ape crazy over this dish.

Dang I sure wish I had a cement pond like that for hunting and testing my creations. Is it stocked with fish? Watch out for otters cuz they will wipe the fish out. Be sure that the BB gun has steel shot in it to be legal and don't shoot your eye out, PS don't drink that water while swimming. BilletHead

True that. They will swim up to you or your boat for a look see, inquisitive to what the heck are you. Not to bite your face off . No black or green mambas here to hunt you down, BilletHead

I was contacted by a forum member asking questions about how I build my fries. I thought I would do a build for those interested. Similar but different than my poppers I did a work up of a year or two back. Going to be picture heavy so bear with me. Don't want to leave anything out and leave you all guessing. This will be for the smaller fry. Inch and three quarters long. Size up hooks and balsa block for a bigger one if you wish. We will start with materials. You can use a popper hook Mustad CK74SS if you want or I have been messing the last few days with a Gamakatsu B-10S. The B-10s have a wider gap than the popper hooks. I an liking that. A wire form for the trailing tail. I use a lead spoon wire pre made. Bought at bass pro. Balsa wood. I use two pieces 1/2"X 3/8", 1 and 3/4" long sandwiched together. Material photo, snip one eye off of the wire form. You can see the gap difference in the two hooks, both size #1, Chuck up the hook, wrap one layer of thread, I am using 6/0 uni from front to back. Lay on the wire form and give a few wraps forward to secure it. Hold up your balsa blank and pull and adjust the wire form for proper length. If you are using a prop leave enough space behind the blank, if no prop jam it in tighter but leave room to install the tail piece, When you are at desired length give the thread wraps a drop of super glue on both sides. Spread it around and give a few more complete wraps of thread forward and back. Whip finish. Here is a popper hook and the one we will be doing, Three sandwich balsa blocks with matching hooks, More later from the BilletHead

Interesting observation Snagged! That is right on colors for a copperhead. It is almost like the eye part of the picture has been altered, BilletHead

If you don't think I know what I am talking about look here. The reptiles and amphibians of Missouri book put out by the department of conservation says in this part of the county where these pictures were taken there are no cottonmouths. Ha do not believe what you read or hear. I live in Vernon county just north of you MoCarp. I had a professor from SMS in Springfield several years back showing him an outcropping of chert he was interested in near my home. He walked right by one, I caught it and took a stick and showed him it's fangs with venom dripping. He about freaked . I don't make it a habit of doing this but wanted to show him. The book says they are not here either. Seen others there since then, BilletHead

Works everywhere but here and it is getting better. The good and not so bad. When I was on here this morning site was still very slow between pages and threads. Only place I could back up on was general fishing discussion. All others hang ups and I would have to open up again. Just getting back on here and this place is working like lightning between places. Still hanging up some trying to back up. I did clear history as suggested. years worth of history . Did not make a difference in backing up but it is getting better, BilletHead

Totally agree with this.