Another boat builders gathering is history.

[Huntindave McCann]

Saturday marked the 2nd annual Midwest gathering of DHBP participants with 4 states represented.

Ed Lydic and wife Vickie came from the Quad cities area in Illinois. Ed won the smallest boat prize, beating out all competition by a landslide.

Tom Scholberg (Minnesota)won top prize for most items brought. He showed up with three boats to display as well as a few other items.

Joe Lane (Wisc.??) brought his Devlin Mallard along with his lovely wife and family. Sadly both his son and daughter suffer from a case of shyness. Of course their reaction to my asking for their help, may have been an appropriate response as outlined in the "stranger danger" program. :>)

Pete McMiller (Wisc.)brought his Black Brant 3 along with a rig of diver decoys. He pleased the crowd with some smoked fish that he had caught out of Lake Michigan , otherwise know as the lost ocean of the Mid-coast.

WisPete (WISC. naturally) and wife (my apologies for not getting her name) came with a flat of fresh picked strawberries, yum yum. Note to Rick, Make darn sure this guy gets an invite for next year.

Phil Novak (Iowa) brought along his version of an open water hunting boat. From the ground it resembled a mid-sized Noah's Ark and just as sea worthy.

As for myself (Iowa), I finally finished carving and got a paint job on my set of Greenwing Teal cork decoys, so I brought them along for show and tell. I helped the food supply with a log of deer sausage, cheese and crackers.

A big thank you has to go to Rick Kyte for getting this thing going again this year. He of course had his Devlin Bluebill there for display. At he end of the afternoon he topped it all off by hosting a steak supper at his home for those that wanted to stick around a little while longer. Tom and Ed added to the food and drink supply as well. I do believe everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, I know I did. Can't forget to extend this thank you to Rick's wife Cindy for putting up with us.


We did a bag exchange mid afternoon so everyone went home with at least one item they hadn't brought with them.

Somebody is gonna ask " Where are the pictures?" Well don't bug me, Rick was the one running around with the official camera, although I saw Ed, WisPete and others taking photos also. I'm sure they will serve us up some pics.

My apologies if I missed anyone.
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PS, Andrew Holley is being held accountable for for an IOU on two homemade rhubarb pies for next year!! Mark, what can I say, get your priorities in order man!

 

[Andrew Holley]

And they were damn delicious, if I do say so myself. Crust made from scratch, with real lard, flakey as could be.

Andrew.

PS I will try harder to make it next year.

 

[Huntindave McCann]

There is a spiecial ( spelling error intended) place in he## for those that promise pies,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and then don't deliver. hehehe

 

[Tom Scholberg]

Dave, Nice recap, couldn't have said it better myself. A few extra point to add.
1. Never bring 3 boats, too much time away from storytelling.
2. I was pumped about this from the first anouncement and it was all I expected.
3. Putting faces to names was a pleasant experience, I feel like I made some new lifelong friends.
4. I had never been in that part of the country and can only say WOOOOW, I now have another descision come Oct.
5. A huge thank you to all who have been mentioned already but a special one to Rick and Cindy for capping the day off with great style.
6. Veterans Campground is the place to camp, quiet (except on race night), by a river and plenty of open sites. ( 7 min/ $.25 showers)
7. Now I have to rethink building a Scaup vs a BB3.
8. Pics are coming but I got to go now.

 

[Rick Kyte]

Here they are.

Wispete and his lovely wife were the first to arrive. He should be posting his pics soon.



Huntindave brought painted decoys this year.



Wicker T & Walker with his bluebill



Joe Lane with his Devlin Mallard (and a couple of duckhunters-in-training)



The always stylish Pete McMiller and his BB3



More to come in the next post.

 

[Rick Kyte]

Ed finally got around to building the boat he's been talking about for years. Too bad he didn't allow for shrinkage when using cheap material and putting it in the water. This is why you should always use marine plywood and quality FME.



Here's Phil N with his "Monster Honker." The inside of this boat would make a nice-size swimming pool!



Here's a shot of Tom's Poleboat with his 3hp Evinrude Duck Twin.



And we figured out why Tom is always dropping his motor in the lake even with a safety cable.

 

[Wispete]

On the way to LaCrosse . Wisconsin always likes big fish and a pic of the Mississippi.

 

[Wispete]

Tom and dog Toms dog has it made , air conditioning. A neat idea on the back of his truck

 

[Eric Patterson]

Great job guys. Wish we all lived a bit closer. Me and my boys would have thoroughly enjoyed the gathering, so would the pups.

 

[Wispete]

Pete's dog was greeting Tom's dog All dogs were well behaved and a pleasure to be around. The first picture is Phil and his five month old Chesse.

 

[Pete McMiller]

Yep, it was certainly a good time. I was thinking on the drive back on Sunday morning how interesting it is to meet people face to face after visiting with them on the internet for years. Some you meet and say to yourself "well of course that's so&so, he looks just like I would have imagined" others are totally different than you imagined.

I had a great time and want to specifically thank Rick for is efforts and a very special thanks to Cindy for dinner. Rick you really have to have a long talk with that butcher and find out what that "spoon steak" is and what it is marinated in - just great!

Nice to see HuntinDave again and meet the new guys. No doubt in my mind that we will be sharing a blind or two in the future.

Tom, I do believe we will need more than that one campfire to exchange all our stories.

Ed, I PM'd you on the smoked fish recipe. You or Vickie have any questions, just holler.

Pete & Carol were a delight to visit with as well and as others have said - yummy strawberries. I do get up to your part of the world on occasion and just might darken your doorstep sometime.

 

[Joe Lane]

Thanks again Rick for organizing the second annual midwest DHBP gathering.

The camara angle is off on the picture you took of me because I know my gut isn't that big. I better get back into the weight loss program before season starts. The camara angle is perfect on Phils boat (ship), the thing really is that big.

Wispete, I tried to get a similar picture with my kids and the Lake Onalaska sunfish on my way home but the kids were out cold just after leaving the parking lot.

Huntindave, I'll put those spinners to use ASAP. Thank you..

It's interesting to see the creativity and personality that goes into these boats and gear first hand. I hope to meet with all of you again next year.

Joe Lane

 

[Pete McMiller]

Haha, that's what I always dread to - the damned camera angle. It was nice to meet you and your family Joe. Sorry about the ball. Otto can't help himself. He's always antsy when kids are playing with "dog" toys though he usually doesn't impale the ball on a tooth that fast hehe.

Pete

 

[Rick Kyte]

Joe,

Sorry about the photo. I must have had it on the wide-angle setting. But, you know, it's funny that it didn't seem to affect how your kids look.

It was good to see you and the rest of the gang again this year.

Rick

 

[Colin Wheeler]

Sounds like a great time guys. To bad it was such a drive from New Hampshire.

 

[Ed L.]

Here are some pictures I managed to retrieve from my camera. We stayed at Veterans Campground this year rather than Goose Island. It was a great county campground. The park attendants were very friendly and helpful. I know this because when I tried to pay for our site using plastic they weren’t set up for that. Rather than send me packing they set me up with the promise I’d settle up after I found an ATM SOMETIME though the weekend. That in it’s self will find me back there the next time we are in the area.



Pete and Tom stayed in the same campground. Here’s Tom and Walker at their site. As Dave said Tom doesn’t leave home without it. His rig was pretty impressive. One of the things that caught my eye was Tom has a water tank in the truck bed hanging on the wall made from what appeared to be 4” PVC pipe 8’ long. What a great way to haul water without taking up a bunch of floor space. I also liked his tailgate awning. Reminded me of a teardrop camper setup where you can have a place to cook with a roof if it’s raining or just for shade if need be.





If you look real close you can see Pete’s site way down at the other end of the photo. It looked a lot bigger in the view finder.





Here’s Pete and his BB3. Humm, just like another picture I just viewed. Hey Harker you might recognize the head gear Pete’s wearing. Anything for a photo op…

 

[Ed L.]

Here’s Tom and his boat. Correct me if I screwed up but it’s an Armstrong Broadbill that he built. So for future reference guy’s it’s not Devlin designs only. His pole boat and a canyak where in another picture I wasn’t able to get off the camera. Tom brought is antique Duck twin. That was a neat little motor.



Here’s a picture Rick and WisPete and I believe HuntinDave is in there looking over Ricks Bluebill. As you may notice Wispete’s wife Carol is caught off guard while I’m snapping pictures. What a sweetheart she is. Her and Vickie spent the whole afternoon together.



I thought I had a picture with Joe Lane and family but it must not have taken. Joe’s kids ran and ran all afternoon. Man I wish I had some of that spunk again! Anyway I did manage to get a shot of Joe’s boat.



Here’s a shot before Phil got there where I thought I had everyone in the photo then right when I snapped Wispete disappeared from view so here’s left to right, Pete McMiller, Dave McCann, Joe Lane and Rick Kyte. Joe my picture was mch more flattering. Hehehe...to bad I lost it!



I didn’t get a shot of Phil’s destroyer. I had already used my camera as a shuffle board puck before I could get any pictures. I got to tell ya, that boat is impressive. I can’t imagine there’s many days on the Mississippi that you’d stay home with that boat..

I want to again thank Rick and Cindy for their hospitality and to Pete, Dave, Tom and Wispete for all the goodies. The bag exchange was fun and everybody took something home. To top it off, Saturday night Pete turned in early but Tom and I put just an ever so swallow dent in the beer cooler and was entertained by telling stories and getting to watch fireworks from the local stockcar track. What a way to finish up a great day.

Well another get together in the books as Dave said. Again it was a great time and I really enjoyed meeting people from the site. Pete thanks for the Salmon recipe. I'm sure we'll be trying this real soon. Hopefully there will be a time this fall we can get together again and shoot a few ducks or just shoot the breeze and maybe just get a little fowl mouthed.

Take care.

Ed L.

 

[Pete McMiller]

Isn't it against the rules somewhere to snap a pic without warning all us old farts to "suck up ur gut". hehe Damned camera angle again.

 

[Ed L.]

Pete,

Why do you think I wore that blob-o-uflage shirt. Blob-O-Flouge gives that slimming effect. At least that's what she said......She wouldn't lie....right?

 

[Tom Scholberg]

Not only the camera angle but all that bad light that washed out the color in my beard. Nothing quite like a camera to start a workout/diet program. Oh well every gray hair has been honestly earned. Any good easy method to downsize pics so I can post them???? I used to have a JPEG wizzard but changed computors and can't find it. Got a couple that I really would like to get on here.