Carved balsa poppers and more plus a bit of fishing

[BilletHead]

 High muddy water has kept the BilletHead's at bay. Not really wanting to fight the elements been staying close to home.  Yard and garden work and in free time carving some new poppers plus some experimental carving and painting. Finally the break we were hoping for with promises of clearer water. It was up at four AM, hit the road at five AM. Launched at five forty-five for the long trip to an undisclosed location hoping for the best. Fly rods built ready for possible action. Then we seen the first top water action. I started off with one of my new creations. Several slashes but they were behind missing the bait. Then a spotted  bass connected. Stink off. Missed more boils and decided to tie on a shuttlecock and first cast hook up! Big white bass, next cast what we were looking for,

 Messed a bit more when Mrs. BilletHead connected using a half and half clouser,

     Made a run further up but sun creeping on the water only yielded a white for the Mrs. So back to original starting place where we seen a few more boils. Tied on another new carve. Missed five hits or should I say the fish missed five times? So this new fly rod bait will be forever called the French Fry. Why you ask? I will go back a few years when I made a trip to the White River in Arkansas. Was with a guy who set a friend and I on some browns on reds. The browns were feeding while there. I threw most everything I had when the guy said keep with it. He said it is like this. Say one guy has some french fries.Passes the fries across the fellow in the middle. This makes the guy in the middle mad and soon he is going to intercept one of those fries whether he really wants one of not. So as I kept throwing to this likely spot hoping that fish would take that balsa bait. Even discussed this with the Mrs. Then it happened it took it good. Not the biggest fish but we were happy. If weather cooperates the fish should get bigger,

  So take it to heart when things seem frustrating just keep casting that French Fry to where you know that fish is he just might take it. . So here are the new items. First one. I was looking at color schemes as I sometimes get a bit blank painting. Looking at tiny torpedoes    http://www.tacklecollecting.com/TinyTorpedoCOLORtestforPDF.pdf

 I came across this. Decided I need to make one for the fly rod. I found it hard to carve in the round uniform but did it. Bad thing is it looks more like an old WW2 bomb. Thus "Da Bomb" was born. Casts great on the eight weight, much more easy to lift out of the water to cast than the cupped face popper. Round head really pushes the water and the little prop makes it sputter. This caught the Spotted Bass and missed some Hybrids. B10 hook with a bit of modification,

  Next a Trio of French fries. Top to bottom 2/0 , 1/0 and size 1 popper hooks. Angle of the photo is hard to tell but the bodies are smaller corresponding with hook size. These little jewels are easy casting.Sputter and twitch on the surface and if you can get the slanted face to bite on a fast strip a wiggle just under the surface,

Then the batch of standard poppers freshly made,

And then I leave you with the Mrs. laying out a cast,

BilletHead

[Mitch f]

Very nice report!

[Johnsfolly]

BH - Great to see you and Mrs. BH out on the water again. I love the baits. The color schemes are pretty cool! Great photos!

[Gavin]

Good for you two! Nice fish and awesome poppers. 

[rps]

You know I approve. Make them hit your top water creations.

 

[Russell Doughty]

Nice report, and thanks for the call, Marty.

[Oldschoolcane]

The topwater baits are great, they take a lot of time but they're worth it! 

 

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Persistent.   I like the analogy.