WILSON

1975-2005

And as he sailed thru the air on his last ride thru the skies, a gust of wind caught him.

My heart stopped. My stomach sank. I could see his eyes opened wide as he yelled but to me on his last flight. "JAAAMMMMMIIIEEEeeee...." One single thought went thru my head as I saw him heading for the rocks. " No!..No!......"

I pulled on his life line with all the crack of a bull whip.

It was too late.

Wilson died last night.

I ran to the place where he lay broken across the rocks. I froze. And then panic set in. Like a child lost in a massive department store. I fell absolutely silent. Everything fell absolutely silent as I searched and searched while overturning rocks and frantically kicked stalks over to find the other half of him.

We never found that other half.

Rich was kind with words as I stumbled into disbelief over what had just happened.

" He died how he lived." He said.

A single breeze had taken away all that he was.

He was Paul Bunyan's ox.

He was Marciano's left hook.

He was Germany's Panzer Division.

He was Dangerfield's microphone.

He was Hendrix's Stratocaster.

He was Muddy Waters' mojo.

He was Bogart's fedora.

He was Babe Ruth's bat.

He was Tiger Woods' 3 iron.

He was Baryshnikov's shoes.

He was Keith Moon's drum set.

He was Monet's canvas.

He was Wyatt Earp's Colt.

He had the the respect off all who knew him by the very mention of his name.

And he was mine.

Handed down from my grandfather who knew him before me.

Only to die on rocks. Not even to drown as we both would see fit of each other.

And today I will grieve for a period of 24 hours.

And when those hours are done I shall unleash a reign of terror in his name for 30 days and 30 nights that could only be equalled by Genghis Kahn himself.

And they will know that I have been there by the trail of the wounded. And with each victim I shall remember a time when I took blood and striped it on two sides of his face to remind him that he was indeed the finest warrior I had ever known.

For now....rest, victims. Because when the bells ring seven on this very night there will not be one amongst you that shall be safe.

Wilson, I'm sorry. I'm very sorry.

Goodbye my friend.

6/1/05 Fox River. & 6/2/05 AM

Jamie here.
Mike and I hit the Fox River last night in his boat. We launched at about 7pm and headed upstream for a half a mile or so to an area that Mike has been fishing for years. Our main baits the we threw were topwater lures like buzzbaits and Chug Bugs. While covering all of Mike's best-kept-secret spots we raised up quite a few smallmouth bass. Mike caught 4 or 5. I got one and a foul hooked carp that I fought for the better part of 15 minutes.




At spot #1 we watched this gentleman fight a monster carp on a dry fly. It was a cool battle to witness.


Mike was the first one to connect with a good size smallmouth bass that exploded on a Chug Bug as we fished shoreline rocks and small wing dams.



I tied into a big carp by accident after Mike caught a couple more smallies. It ripped out 100 yards of line a couple times as it made some tremedous power-runs downstream. I got it in after about 15 minutes of a back and forth fight





Mike nailed a couple more nice smallies as darkness fell.



And I picked up a nice one that slammed a buzzbait in the last spot of the trip.





................................
6/2/05
I had a half hour to kill this morning so i ran down to the river to make a couple casts. I only got one...but she was pretty nice. I caught this fish over the weekend as well on a jig & twister set-up. Today she went after a Chug Bug twitched on the surface of the water. That's a real testiment as to how well catch & release fishing works. I'm going to stay away from this spot for a while because I don't want to catch her a third time.....just wouldn't be fair.

World Record Blue Catfish

We were called on by the State Of Illinois this weekend to do a Life Size Trophy Print os Tim Pruitt's 124lb world record blue catfish that he caught last week in the Mississippi River near Alton ,Il. He'll be awarded honors during a ceremony at the State House tomorrow (June1, 2005) . We got the print out and shipped it overnight.
Not bad, eh? We got a world record fish in on Tuesday morning and it'll be hung up on Wednesday morning.
Congradulations Tim!! You got alot of jaw-dropping-stares here in the Customfish.com shop when that fish rolled off the press!
Thanks to Marc Miller and the State Of Illinois for choosing Customfish.com for this very special project.