"Ok folks, it's a wrap!"

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I'm calling it. Time of death for the 2007 fishing season was at 2:15pm on saturday the 17th of November, 2007. With the trade show season coming up and an ever increasing workload, I don't see us getting out again til January. Plus, I believe in the old saying "you better quit while you're ahead."
And what a nice ending it was. Cold. Raining. Windy. Miserable 42 degrees for a high and water temps in the high 40's.
I said to Ken on our way "We're ending on a high note. one of us has to get a trophy". Now, keep in mind our idea of a trophy is 20" or better. To everyone else it's 18". We do 18" alot. So to be fair to ourselves it's 20" for team Customfish.
As we pulled up to our regular parking spot we were greeted by a nice buck and a couple does in the distance. We took that as a good omen.
While the fishing was far from spectacular we did manage to reach our goal and end the year just as we said we would. A couple hours hopping spots and the final numbers were 2 smallmouth bass and 2 hybrid greengills for me. 7 largemouth bass, 1 smallmouth bass and a couple hybrid greengills for Ken.
Live bait is the key. Shiners under a slip bobber with #1 or #2 circle hooks set about 2-3' down.

Ken with a nice start.


Yet another big largemouth, one of many. But it was smallies we were looking for.


Found 'em! A perfect ending to the season. 20" Spike-fin Smallmouth Bass. I was king for about half an hour....until Ken decided to pull out the trump card on me about 50 yards away!


20", baby. Ken closes out with the 20" Spike-fin Smallie we said we'd get. Just like clockwork.

As I said, we were using shiners but I think 6" long bullfrogs would have worked too considering what my big spike-fin smallie gave back to me while I was unhooking it. Yuck!

Sorry I had to show that to you, but it just goes to show ya what a hungry bass will eat....a 6" bullfrog AND a 3" shiner at the same time. Oh..and she'll hit twice!
I should explain that. THIS IS A FIRST IN ILLINOIS SMALLMOUTH BASS FISHING HISTORY! Go back and look at the spike-fin smallies Ken and I caught. Look really close. I caught mine, and then Ken caught his 30 minutes later and 50 yards downstream. Mine was hooked in the top lip AND spit out a 6" bullfrog at me. She cleared the water once on a jump. Ken's fish ALSO cleared the water on a jump. Both were spectacular fights!
UMMM..It's the same fish!!! I just noticed that as I was writing this post! We caught the SAME trophy spike-fin smallmouth bass within half an hour and 50 yards of each other! No one has EVER done that..not in Illinois anyway. That is just NUTS! What a wild ending to a wild, unbelievable and awesome year! Beat THAT, my fellow ISA anglers!!!!
On another note, Ken and I will be hiring a little person to follow us around all of next year with the sole purpose of holding our fish in photos. When you are as Andre-The-Giant-size as we seem to be, the big fish we get don't look so big. Effective today we'll be accepting applications from little people.

So...that's it folks. It's a wrap.
We'd like to thank everyone who fished with us this season. You were all great. We also would like to thank all of our readers and customers. Be sure to stop by the Chicago Musky Show and say Hi!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Try the veal...and don't forget to tip your waitresses! Good night!


Please keep checking in because even though we're gonna be setting the poles down for a little while, we'll still be putting stuff up here and we're changing the entire site with some BIG surprises.

* Jamie's hat by reelpure.com


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Oh..one more thing.
"SMALL CHILD LANDS 40" MONSTER PIKE IN DUPAGE COUNTY SUBDIVISION POND!!"
My son was thrilled with his latest catch on his snoopy pole. I guess he's just like his old man; Go big or go home. There aint no room for dinks!
Nice going son....even if it did come out of the little lake in our backyard.


I gotta send that to these guys.