BilletHead

Hominy I can tolerate, okra is like eating snot! maybe cooked like this would work. Chief can have my okra. BilletHead

Nice deer and well done. I hope to be out in the morning again! BilletHead

Thanks Slab, Found three more fresh ones today. May pick them tomorrow? BilletHead

Not yet Marcus. I did see one this morning while checking out one of my stands. The long tined one in the photo above. North east wind is bad where I hunt. I am out right now anyways. In a ground blind watching squirrels. BilletHead

Another financial adviser! I need that. David fall hunting can be hoot if you remember to take your calls with you. I have called in adult toms but the fall season is for young tender birds really. The best way is to bust up the flock of hens and young birds. Get them to go in all directions when you do. Sit down and give it some time. You will begin to hear them call each other. Adult hens will yelp and the young birds will yelp and kind of whistle. Another way to describe it is a kee, kee, kee or a pee, pee,pee type of call. Just call as you hear and get ready. Sometimes they will just sneak in talking some as you call, sometimes they will run in so fast it will surprise you. Bust them on the roost in the late evening and go back in the morning and they will call to get back in the flock. They are really tasty and remind me of a free range farm chicken. Texture of chicken with the taste of turkey. Best of both worlds BilletHead

Thanks fellas, Gavin sounds like my financial adviser!

So we got up early on Pat's day off for a turkey hunt. All I can say it was very,very windy. Windy enough I thought I would say no go. We went up the road to a neighbors place and walked down an old lane and took a seat in the woods overlooking a field. I knew where birds roost in a couple of places and was hoping to hear them on the roost so we could make a plan to get into them. Sure enough as the last of the stars started disappearing the birds started talking in the trees. I dug into my pocket for the call. CRAP I had left it at the house. So now what Pat said. Well I could go home and get it or we could see how close we could get to them and hope if we bust them we will be in the center of the flock and they would self call back to a group and hope we would be centered. We booked it to a spot closer to the roost. Got pretty close but hard to tell in the big wind. We ended up in the timber near a creek. We sat side by side and listened. Soon they got real noisy and started flying from tree to tree heading our way. Soon we had two within range in a tree. But elected not to shoot as we both did not have the shot. I did and Pat did not. Since I had killed one last week I wanted Pat to have the chance. All of the sudden Birds hitting the ground all around us. Part of them grouped in front of us and were heading in fast. I had no shot but Pat did and as tight as they were told her to line up two heads, she did and in one shot took two out! We screamed with glee as birds flushed back into trees and all over around us. I took a shot but missed as Pat pounced on her birds. A juvenile hen and a juvenile gobbler. We started laughing out loud. Happy with the take we headed back to the field and as we entered the field and Pat said hey there is a turkey. I stretched my neck to see a bird at the end of a tree row. We hit the side of the field and I did my best attempt at a stalk using brush and the tree row. As I got closer hit the ground for a crawl of sorts. Peeked up again to see two birds, down again for closing the gap, peeked up again to see three birds, big birds, adult gobblers! Again back down for the final assault. This time I was up with shotgun ready, picked out the closest and took the shot. Bird down and I did my bird pounce too just like the Mrs. Now to the kicker this bird had 7/8 inch spurs but no visible beard? I dug into the feathers to find two nub beards that were white? yes white. Nice heavy bird guessing eighteen pounds. Bottomed out my fifteen pound set of scales. Bad photo of the mini beards but you can see they are white. Our fall shotgun tags are filled. More outdoor meat shopping done. BilletHead

Well done young man, BilletHead

Been watching this tree. It had six encircling the tree. We had picked one and let the others be. Two have started drying up and we picked two others leaving one. The largest was fourteen pounds. Well then after cleaning these two we did a double batch of pickled hens, sauteed some in butter and onions. These we will freeze in small batches for later use. Put some in wild turkey soup. Loaded five trays in the dehydrator. The last one at the base of the tree I will pick in a day or two. It is still fresh, BilletHead

Yes here for me also. Turn the phone horizontal and it is more tolerable, BilletHead

I hope it will happen.

Both are pretty old deer. That first one is a nine. The second photo it is hard to see the extra on the left side. Found another scrape on this line of scrapes. A rather large one. Set up a ground blind and camera on it. Needs to ferment some so to say so the deer will get used to it. Scrapes are not a sure fire thing but it will give me a general route this early in the season. In a few weeks scrape hunting is out the window, BilletHead

First two pictures are the same deer on two different cameras ten yards apart on a couple of scrapes. i may have to start going out soon because sometime they might show up during daylight hours. BilletHead BilletHead

Shot me a young turkey hen this morning. She had the most amazing tail feathers. Usually they are beat up from picking at each other, shot through or messed up from thrashing around on the ground after being shot. There are nine matched pairs. Would be nice for traditional muddler patterns , shell backs, hopper wings etc. I am going to keep two pair so there is seven up for grabs. Speak up and PM me your address tiers and I will gift them to you. I would rather give seven out if I get seven people but if you want a couple pairs that will work, BilletHead

It was a long day. Up at Three AM loaded and left the house at Four Am sharp. Three and a half hours later we were launched and going up the river towards the dam for some drifting. Mrs BilletHead rigged up with a san jaun worm with a Y2k on point. I another worm with a scud on point with some shot for weight. When in Rome do as others. Well most others as some such as Phil we got to shout at was throwing jigs. We made some short drifts, took me a while to get in sync with the flow with the trolling motor. A hit or two with no catches then the Mrs. hit a snag and broke off. Into the fly stash she went saying I am not going to double up with two and loose two at a time. Again we made a drift and she hooked up. As she fought it I asked what did you tie on? North Fork special with a bead head. I landed the fish and spied the fly and said honey that is a prince nymph. She giggled and we began to drift again, and again she hooked another one. Well then don't you think you are being a fish hog? Another giggle. Finally I catch a couple. And we drift more until I put on a prince tied on a 2499SPBL. Shorter bodied but with a curve nymph look and we both caught more. Go figure the wife is the fly expert? We worked down to just below the lookout and seen some fish along the bank. Took a play from Phil's play book and both tied on a small stimulator. A few throws later we both caught one along the bank on the drys. Last cast the Mrs get a branch, we get the branch and a bonus hopper. Was that your hopper Phil? Pulled out and headed home for another three and a half hour drive home. So five hours of fishing and seven hours of driving. One of todays pretty fish, and report over, PS Phil We did text the dock hand. Got a text back pronto. Response Who is this I lost my contacts? Before I could respond with what could of been a fun conversation The phone rang and I got to talk with him

Well they will determine these WrenchBoogers are endangered and close your portion of the lake for years. Like in the swamp for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Better keep quiet about those WrenchBoogerPeckers. BilletHead

ha Wrench I think that is one of them there designer dogs you can put in your purse. In this case I bet Mr. Jerry can put that one in his tackle box or golf club bag. BilletHead

Well I was in kind of a mini funk, Ollie this one is for you. Did some Kayak pond fishing last week and did OK but was really wanting to get back out in the boat. I knew the leaves were starting to fall and sure enough had to stop four times on the way up the river to let the leaves go off the jet intake. Just stop and turn off the motor and then start up and go again. No biggie just a pain. (I know Wrench that is what I deserve but I wouldn't of made it very far at all with the prop). I shot four long shoals to make it where I could not go any farther. At that place I rigged the eight weight and put on a clouser and began to throw it in the current swinging it into the deeper pool. No takers but along the bank in the shadows under the overhanging trees I seen some rather large fish. Grass carp in small schools. Just for kicks I threw in front of them. They turned and followed the clouser. Hummmm so I kept throwing into the deeper water with no fish to show for it. So my mind kept drifting thinking of the big grass carp. I dug into my fly gear and found a large rusty brown Clouser swimming nymph. Tied it on and slowly went for the shady bank. Found one of the schools and gave a nice throw six foot in front of them. When it hit the water three bee lined it to the nymph. I got one short strip in and fish on. The rodeo ensued and up and down the hole it took me as I fought the trolling motor to keep the fish in the middle of the channel and out of the rocks on one side and the trees in the river on the other side. This kept on for twenty minutes or more until I was able to get the net ready. As I tried to net him he seen the net and the rodeo commenced again for awhile. I kept thinking no one is going to believe this I got to land this fish. Well i finally did and I was pooped. He bottomed out my scales on the boga grip. I did have a thirty two inch golden rule and measured him with that. Needed another measuring device besides this. Found one and laid it out too. Over thirty -five inches but not making three foot. Wonder what he weighed? Got him back into the water and revived and he swam off happy, well I suppose he was happy I know I was . Went back to the bank and worked two schools again with the fish looking at the fly but no takers. I think I could of repeated this again but the wind came up and I could no longer see my quarry. With the mini funk behind me I was done for the morning and headed back to the ramp. Wind blowing enough the leaves stayed on one side of the river so I only had to stop twice. I have one question. Why do some people think there is only one specie of fish to catch? Me I don't really care if it pulls back I am happy. Some days I am more happy with whaht I catch though ! BilletHead

Remember Ness you ain't no Martha Stewart

Well done gentlemen! BilletHead

Ohh yea Chief. Looks tasty, Ok now we are talking s'mores . A little different than plain chocolate ones.Ingredients for todays little treat. Yes chocolate but dark chocolate with fillings. Sea salt caramel and raspberry fillings. So many variations out there. Have done some with peanut butter cups also but I think these today were the best, BilletHead

Thanks Richard, Wish you lived a bit closer. Would be gifting goodies such as this for you to work with BilletHead

Today was fried day:). Half of a young wild turkey breast cut across the grain in slices double dipped in Louisiana spicy chicken fry mix. Young hen of the woods mushroom chunked up and same breading as turkey. Fresh garden peppers grilled and coleslaw. Some ranch dressing for dipping. A cold one for beverage, BilletHead

Well done Slab Slinger! We looked last Tuesday at a favorite tree and there was nothing. I went back on Thursday and there was three there. Picked one today pretty small but as dry as it is I was worried to let them alone too long. Since Thursday it had grown a couple of inches more. Since it was young and tender we chunked it up and fried it with wild turkey. We have grilled, made soup, casserole, and put in stews and pickled with peppers. Hens are very versatile. I have a large jar full that have been dehydrated. Crunch them up and use all winter as fillers in dishes, Todays baby hen BilletHead

Yes Pete I have a dehydrator. I know they say you can string the peppers up and hang to air dry. BilletHead