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

Thanks Ronnie, Check these out. Been catching on all models. Single hook, treble hook, one prop, two props of no prop at all. Those fish love them. Keeping the color simple like a shad, who doesn't like a shad? BilletHead

That right there is a memory. Congrads grandpa! BilletHead

Caught a nice hybrid this morning and decided to invite him to dinner. The sides filleted off gave us two nice slabs of meat. Each side is split up to five sections each. These we slid into a zip lock bag with olive oil and fresh chopped rosemary this sits as the grill heats up and the sides are prepared. Time to hit the hot grill, Cook until approximately half the fillet pieces turn from translucent to opaque then flip, This will go quick as it takes no time to cook fish even though the shoulder pieces were an inch and a half thick. Time to plate up as the sides of baked beans and slaw with home mixed dressing were done. While eating the blackberry cobbler with our garden berries was cooking, The BilletHead's eat real well!

It's quite a rush, To get up at 3:30 AM to head to your favorite fishing spot to be where you want to be at day break. Eat your cereal, drink your coffee on the road to not waste time. Watching the side of the road for deer ready to step in the road. Caffeine taking effect helping reaction time. It's quite a rush, To be running the boat and it is so dark all you can see is the reflection of a hint of starlight and horizon starting to lighten the water. Only way you know where the bank is the reflection stops. No fog this morning but the past two days fog made this run worse. Knowing the way by counting the places where you turn and trying to remember each log that is in its place of rest. It's quite a rush, To have counted the last turn and know you are about to be at your place of choice, you listen and peer into the approaching daylight for sounds of fish and water being torn up.. You drop your anchor and wait, more watching and listening trying to have patience waiting for your quarry. Having your wife who happens to be your best friend by your side. It's quite a rush to see shad being blown out of the water and flushed onto the bank by it's prey. Hearing gulps and slurping as the shad are being devoured. You shake as you try to strip out fly line so that you can cast. In your rush to do so you tangle line in the bottom of the boat. You must hurry because these very few blitzes of fury will only last seconds or may never happen at all or happen only once during a trip. You commit to the cast, put the popper on the spot. The fish hit and my blow your popper out of the water three times before he gets it to the point he has decided to eat it. When he does chaos ensues. The fish makes a lightning run, you excess fly line slips through your fingers sometimes burning as it does. You hope and pray there isn't any unruly coils to impede the fish run. As the slack hits the reel in a snap the drag kicks in and begins to whine. The fish makes a run away and then toward you. I can tell you this happens so fast the line goes slack., you can't reel fast enough to keep the line tight and again you hope the hook barb has driven it's way deep enough to hold tight. You fight until you and the fish are spent, It's quite a rush to have your net man, oops NET LADY scoop up the beast you have just won the battle with and as you admire your catch and well fought battle you temporary forget the days of no shad, no shad means no predators to fish after. The early mornings, the evenings you went to bed at 7:30 PM to get much needed rest. The money you spend in gas for your ride on the pavement and water. It's quite a rush, to have fooled this fish on a balsa popper you carved, sanded, painted and created, It's quite a rush to thank your maker for the morning you have just had. By 8:00 it's all over and you both have missed another opportunity to hook one. Then before it just got started you are on your way back to the ramp, truck and trailer and on your way home as folks are just launching for their day on the water. They ask did you have any luck? We respond we had a wonderful morning. Have you been running lines is their next question? No we just went for a long boat ride to see the sun rise. They look at you like your nuts. Perhaps we are a bit off kilter for what we do? BilletHead PS we don't keep many hybrids as we like to have another chance to catch them, todays fish was an exception as he was invited to dinner

Yowza Mr. Tippet7, BilletHead

So you saying I need to thaw out some walleye? Well done Scott, BilletHead

After an early morning rise, 3:30 AM a cup of homemade granola cereal, big giant cup of coffee on the way to the boat ramp. 49 degrees here this morning. Long pants and a jacket needed for the boat ride. Water temp 79 and with the air temp it created quite a fog. Not much snacking while fishing just some sunflower seeds and flavored water. What's this got to do with food? Were getting there. On the way back to the ramp I ask the Mrs. What do you want me to cook for you today? As usual she replies whatever you want dear. I say what about duck, yes that will work. So after a quick mow of the lawn as the duck thaws hunger is really sitting in. Pick some garden peppers and some rosemary. Start the charcoal as the Mrs. starts frying potato's with rosemary and onions. Charcoal ready on goes the duck and the Mrs. puts some cubanells, hot banana and chili peppers on the gas grill, Time to plate up and chow down with a cold shiner bock, BilletHead

Ness we have pixwell and another type mixed. Not wild. Even the wild variety will ripen and turn purplish. We have some wild ones at the edge of the yard I munch on when they ripen up. I just always remember grandma and mom picking them more green. My dad always wanted a tart/ sweet pie or cobbler. BilletHead

Nice mess of berries. I should let a batch ripen some next season to get a different look from our pies and preserves. Do the Midwest twisting gooseberry USA, BilletHead

Thanks gentlemen, Ness it is slightly sweet with a hard to notice heat when eaten raw. Really good on salad. Cooked on a grill they go to the more sweeter side. We grill them a lot by coating with olive oil and toss on the gas grill and turn often. The skin is thin and no need for stripping it off to eat. We also do a bunch of assorted peppers in the smoker during high harvest then vacuum seal for use in the off season. The smoked peppers go well in chili, on eggs, enchiladas etc. BilletHead

looking good Scott! Everything we like on that grill. Really enjoy the grilled fish. We do thick fillets of hybrid, coat with olive oil and rosemary. BilletHead

Thanks RPS means a lot to get an approval from you chef, BilletHead

Came over on a boat and then naturalized citizen goose although never he never went to Canada! ha! BilletHead

Along slender banana-shaped pepper that is considered to be a sweet pepper, despite having a mild to moderate spicy heat. Ranging in color from green to yellow or red, this pepper has a glossy outer skin that is smooth and firm in texture. Also known as Italian frying pepper, this pepper is mildly hot and very similar to an Anaheim pepper. Cabanelle peppers are often used in casseroles, salads, pizzas, and as a pepper to be stuffed with a savory filling. They are a good substitute for Poblano peppers. BilletHead

Halved a half dozen cubanelle peppers fresh from the garden. Mixed Italian goose sausage, bread crumbs,egg,flat leaf parsley and salt and pepper. Used pasta sauce and put a layer into a baking dish. Stuffed pepper halves with meat mixture and single layer on sauce. Top with more sauce and shredded mozzarella. Bake in oven at 350 covered for 45 min. Uncover and put under broiler until cheese toasts some. Plate up and feast! BilletHead

picked a half dozen cubanells, What did we do with them? Recipe thread tells the story, BilletHead

Consider it done from the BilletHead household.

Dang Budman that sounds yummy! Here a couple of photos of the cubanells Right now I have two on one plant that are six inches long. Others slightly smaller. Could pick these two but want enough to stuff so as to make a pig of myself, BilletHead