BilletHead

Might pass this along, Cabelas has what I think is a pretty good deal on popper hooks. http://www.cabelas.com/product/Mustad-Signature-CK74S-SS-Fly-Hooks/1170112.uts These are stainless steel hooks. I just got in my order. I did two packages of 2/0 and 1/0 They are just a tad shorter than the ones I have been using but have a wider hook gap which I like. Here is a comparison. What I have made with the same hook below it and then the 2/0 and 1/0 CK74S SS Mustad I just got. Here are a few of the ones I have been doing since our waterfowl is done and I am warming up for fishing, And some for the spin fishermen, BilletHead

You bet gramps, Just pm me your address.

Lancer these are freebees but a Lancer fly would work. PM me your address and I will get them your way, BilletHead

Found your address Wrench and will be sending them to you with the brass eyes, BilletHead

If any of you that tie flys want some mallard flank let me know. I realize some of you don't hunt waterfowl so I will share. I know mallard flank is cheap but free is cheaper, BilletHead

Yes a great bunch there. We also were there yesterday just after noon. BilletHead

Thanks everyone, We are pretty excited about this season. How shallow? Not exactly sure. To the point in break in no more than five minutes at full throttle. We did shoot one riffle on top plane. Did not measure depth but the pucker factor was up there. I don't think I have seen Mrs. BilletHead with such big eyes and we have been married over 37 years. A bit of gravel rash on the motor grates:) Boat jumps on top pretty quick. Still experimenting on loading. Putting trolling motor on a quick disconnect mount. Deep cycle will go up in front storage. All this can be pulled out easy depending where we decide to fish. Boat not a speed demon but I did not expect it to be. Like I said just messing we got over 26 mph with the Mrs. In the boat. When I dumped her at the ramp to back in the trailer over 27 mph with just me. Fast enough for us and if I am going to have a wreck it will be a slow wreck. Used a hand held GPS for measurement. At the ramp the Mrs. says how fast this time? I told her and she said are you telling me I am fat? I think she was baiting me Tickets to ride coming soon, BilletHead

Get those white geese! Two flamingos? We need a complete spread of them, BilletHead

First of all the Billetheads need to come clean. We got us a new ride. An Excel 1754 Stalker Jet. Found this baby in Broken Bow Oklahoma. That was quite a trip From BilletHeadville for sure. Got it bought and home. Then to the river to begin the break in peroid for the motor. I noticed it taking on some water and when we got it out maybe a gallon more or less in two and a half hours. I traced it down to the through the hull livewell drain. Not in the hose but between the hull and outside fitting. I called Excel headquarters in Utah. Yes Utah ! I found out that Excel had been in Conway AR but after a tornado leveled the plant MudBuddy surface drive motors in Utah bought Excel and relocated the boat plant in Mountain View AR. Utah guy put me in touch with D.J. in Mountain View. A plan was made to drive to the boat plant and be fixed up at seven AM this morning. I backed the boat in the door to see five guys waiting. Got unhooked and those guys attacked the boat like ants on a mission. While this was happening D.J. took us on the "tour" Neat and amazed we were. I asked if I could take a few photos if it was allowed. You bet we have no secrets. The boat beginning, a roll of aluminum. Reeled out and flattened, Then bending, forming and welding, Prepping for and painting, The camo ones prepped, painted, spray on liner and then camo painted. They make as orders come in and in slower times they will do a run of best sellers/more popular models. Most years 700 boats a year. Now I did not order one custom for us just found the custom one that fit us We then took a walk to see what they had ready to go on the outside lot. I would say ninety percent are duck boats with pods made for mud motors and outboards. Then fishing which includes bay boats. Back inside they had about completed my project. I asked more questions. Also asked about mounting my trolling motor. He says we can install you some rivet nuts. I kind of wanted to just use nut and bolt so he said do you want an access port? Sure, and it was cut in and installed. At nine-thirty we were rolling the boat and trailer back to the door, So this is a shout out to the crew at Excel to publicly thank them for the fix and tour. They felt bad about the trouble but I am kind of happy with the minor glitch as we got to see something new today. A bit more about our boat. There are no outside ribs on the bottom of the boat. The inside ribs under the floor run lengthways from for to aft instead of across port to starboard. Mr. and Mrs. BilletHead

Mentally unaffected? Remember We have met you Wrench Try to not give up on society. A few folks we have met in our cancer volunteer work have given me hope. We all are falling apart. I am loosing muscle mass in my arthritic shoulder. Did my yearly physical and my doc wants me to do physical therapy and get this, like Phil said massage. So far went to learn exercises to try to rebuild muscle groups to aid in mobilizing the shoulder. May draw the line at the massage though. I hate to move the shoulder and I am a bit apprehensive of letting anyone else move it around. Make the best of what we still have guys and gals. It could be worse! BilletHead

So reading the above what the heck variety of cackler did I shoot? They did not mention what each one tastes like. BilletHead

Thanks guys, Pretty neat info Duane. I know this little guy or gal traveled a long ways to see me and come to dinner. What their eyes have seen along the way. BilletHead

Well the BilletHead's are still going some but I am growing tired. Wearing out. We went Saturday Afternoon. Found where there was some open water along a north bank. We went in and spooked out close to eighty geese and a dozen ducks. Got set up. The setting, Ended up with two mallards. The Mrs. did drop one but it made it to the middle of the lake on the ice. It finally worked its way to the opposite shore and she retrieved it. On her way back I had a fully decked out pintail work. It circled down and then two mallards showed up and it got with them. They seen something they didn't like and flew out. We had groups of geese fly right over the open water and gathered in the disked corn behind us. At one time there were well over two hundred geese out there. After LST we picked up and as we were hooking the trailer on the truck they got up and left. Did not go yesterday. My body did not want to get out of bed. This morning it made it up early but decided to hunt close to the house. Hooked the trailer up to the ATV and a half mile ride I was at the pond. Headlights revealed a flock of snows. They stayed on the opposite end ignoring me. Set up and LST arrived. Some single ducks circled and left. A pair of ring necks worked me and then landed with the snows. Soon snows flew out taking ringers with them. A bit later fifteen mallards worked in and one stayed with me. Seen more canadas in the distance. Then a pair of canadas pitched right in and down they went. A bit later I hear specks behind me. As they came over I noticed another big flock of canadas off to the side. I called and the specks turned, looked and then quickly caught up and left with the canadas. My holy grail of a tar belly speckle belly flew off. Curses foiled again! As I lay there studying the thickening clouds I hear from behind again some awful squeaky half hearted goose sound. I roll my head to see a guess of thirty mini canada geese in a ball coming over. They bank and circle three times and down they come. They did not come in in a nice wedge but in a wad. So tight, I pick the edge one and down it. Pond was still so I got the baitcaster did a cast for the perfect retrieve. I cranked in my prize. I looked like a toy compared to the greaters. Body just slightly larger than the mallard, head smaller than the mallard. Big geese weighed 10 and 9.14oz. Cackler 3.8oz, mallard 2.9oz. I cleaned the cackler like I do my ducks and will try cooking him the same. A nice sear on the outside and rare to medium rare inside. We will see how it tastes? Some ohotos, BilletHead

This is my feed back buddy! A good test and like you I wonder about the results. Thanks for not letting me wonder as long as some others, BilletHead

Whoo hooo , Well done boys! BilletHead

Red eye was good but you know that now. Right at 700 mile round trip a success. Glad to be home! BilletHead

Not in my boat! oh wait I don't have a boat but am looking BilletHead

Wrench,wrench, wrench, Not for the fly rod. A pair of hooks. Unless your talent can throw them without hooking yourself. The tutu , that you will be wearing right? BilletHead

Excellent John P. Enjoy them. I just want to know if you catch RPS the bodies are right at two inches long. I put # 4 hooks on them. Still tweaking hook size position of the first hook etc. For all I know they may fowl up and hooks might have to be changes. These are number two and three of spinning bodies. I am more into the fly fishing popper but these were fun to make. I have three more in the works going right now. Something to do in the lull of any action. BilletHead

Thanks guys, John P. The hardest part of field hunting I would say is the scouting time. It reflects in Bird Watcher's name. You should try it. Fun and rewarding. Chris yes the streak is alive and I would say we will keep it this way. Ducky, I keep my fishing hope going through you. BilletHead

I almost feel kind of guilty making another report. Some of you have struggled this season. Not as good for me too but still having some good hunts. This being said when the BirdWatcher calls and says hey I'm going solo would you like to go along? Duuuh Yes tell me where and when. Directions were given and a time. This is way out of my territory a long way. Took off across the field and began to set up. Lots of time and then I spot a brown item way off. I looked at it through my binoculars and told BirdWatcher what I thought it was. He had seen it the day or two before. More on this later. So set up and hid the trucks. A rake was used to get the blinds ready. Nice and hidden. So now we proceeded to visit and solve world problems. We beat up a few people too but most of you on OA are pretty safe It got later and BWatcher began to fidget some. No worry it is a good time no matter what. Soon we seen in the distance birds heading here and there. As we were looking out, blind doors open we hear the sound of wind in wings. BWatcher says straight up we have been busted as we closed the blind doors. No matter the birds dropped right down into our faces. We shot three times each and we had four mallards and a bonus gadwall. High fives and birds picked up with more coming. Second and final group circled and when the time was right up we came and down go our other four mallards. Done! Whoo Hooo . I piled up the stuff in a central location as BWatcher went for the truck. We picked up and drove to the mystery brown blob in the distance. Just as I had thought it was a decoy bag a big one you would keep goose decoys in. As we drove by it there was a head poking out, a goose head. No names or id. Nine fully flocked decoys in there. What a hunt. A photo to share. There is one mallard missing on the pile. It is there though, BilletHead

Way cool friend! I was gifted a two hander. I think it is a seven weight. Messed with it some but not fished with it yet. Low end Cabelas. May have to take lessons from you, BilletHead

Look at that mess of birds! Nice way to burn the day off. BilletHead

The BilletHead is to the point he needs tri-focal glasses. Last time my prescription had not changed and my regular glasses were still in great shape. Insurance will do glasses and frames every year. I tried on some ray bans . I had to add some money to get no line tri-focal in sunglasses. This was by far one of the best things I have ever done. They are nice. They wrap around pretty well and no light creeps in on the sides. BilletHead

There will be days like that John P, I sometimes don't post ours days like that. Others I do. I blunder all the time. Glad your motor straightened up and some ducks cooperated . Cold weather is hard on things. Especially for me because while you were out hunting I was in the truck keeping warm. at one time yesterday I bet we were not too awful far from your location. Just glad it warmed up for our hunt. We will have our flamingo by next season. That is so neat, we have to have fun along the way. If it gets too serious the fun goes out of the adventure. Got a mailer for your poppers. Will have them in the mail in a day of two, BilletHead