Jay D

A lot of that was old news. What I'm waiting to hear is how bad the forever chemical contamination is when the state finally gets up to speed with it's sampling.

Thanks for all the links. The story that ran in the Tribune the other week was very unsettling. In short, we're essentially being told it's unwise (and being discouraged) to eat our local freshwater fish. The contamination is essentially nationwide, and only worse in the Great Lakes region. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/environment/ct-toxic-forever-chemicals-fish-20230117-5fygn4fikndmti33g3vmhy6raa-story.html

Yes indeed! To make matters worse I have another block of EVA foam on the way in orange. I'd be willing to make some of that available as well, in bulk or plugs.

Thanks to all for the input. I’ll snag a box of those Mustads and get back to tying.

Now that I look at the blockhead, I'm inclined to agree with you. That's from last year when I first started tying poppers. That size hook seemed to work well enough on the smaller cylindrical poppers I use on stream smallmouth, but for the blockheads it looks like I need to size up. The photo shows one of the block heads, plus a size 6 Mustad that I use for Shenk Streamers and a Lightning #4 popper hook I should try. I never really grasped hook sizing numbers as they seemed less than consistent, but I just need experiment and tie, tie tie...

Sure thing. Blockhead poppers are easy to tie, however if you're cutting your own foam heads that's the challenge. It takes practice and a very sharp blade to cut them cleanly, evenly and consistently. Being a woodworker I'm planning on making my own cutting jigs, something of a mitre box to cut them consistently. There's a commercially made one available for the cylindrical plugs, I'm going to start with making that style. As far as foam popper selection goes, I mostly plan on using 1/2" cylindrical poppers as I mostly fish a shallow, clear creek. Tim Holschlag recommended saving the noisier blockhead poppers for the bigger waters. I will be throwing a mini blockhead on my creek as well. I'd keep the popper body size and style in mind for the type of water you'll be fishing.

Update: The topwater bite is on, folks. I still have plenty of foam blocks and plugs to trade. I would like some white and chartreuse blanket yarn if someone is so inclined... Tight lines, Jay The Fishin' Musician

I was a member of DRIFT a few years back and he was one of the guest speakers. His presentation proved to be the most valuble (to me) of all the speakers. His methods and fly selection really helped to change my game on Hickory Creek and continues to.

Here's something recent: http://freepressnewspapers.com/content/city-officials-dnr-meet-over-wilmington-dam I don't see that low head dam being much of a barrier to Asian carp.

I work on violin family instruments (violas, cellos, basses) exclusively. I also work on bows, which are periodically re-haired with horse hair (tail). It helps to be a fly tier when doing that job...

Yep. The best way I've found to get large blocks of EVA foam is to buy yoga blocks on eBay, They run about $5 each including shipping and can yield dozens and dozens of blockheads and popper plugs. I resaw the yoga blocks into slabs on my bandsaw, which does a beautiful job of slicing them. If I want plugs the $3.50 plug cutter set from Harbor Freight does a fine job of cutting them out on my drill press. Cutting blockheads is a lot trickier, but with practice and a good, long sharp utility knife its doable. Nothing against the fly shops, but I aint paying no $1 a piece for a block head, when purchasing materials in bulk they're about 4 cents each.

Instrument repairs and sales of imports is my main gig, building is a hobby, as selling your own instruments you can't make any money at.

Well, my tying room/bench is actually my workshop where I make violins, but it has to do double duty. It's something of a sh*t shambles at present. Right now fly tying is taking priority, but that's likely going to turn over in the coming weeks.

I currently have an over abundance of Bernat Blanket Yarn in School Bus Yellow. I wouldn't mind trading some for chartreuse or white. If I was just tying mop flies I'd just pick up a dust mop head or wash mitt, but I'd like longer pieces for tying Shenk Streamers, so I'd like to lighten the excess of yellow yarn for some additional colors. I also have a few nice chunks of chartreuse and yellow EVA foam chunks if someone happened to have some orange pieces. These could be cut into blockheads, plugs or whichever.

The article states that they haven't made much of a migration past I-55. I'm guessing they're in there. I know one was caught out of the Kankakee a few years back, maybe 5 or 6 years ago.