Oh, just a couple more things before we go.

By now you know that it's tradition for me to go out and have the best possible day of fishing locally before I leave on a big trip.
This time was no exception.
Rich Delaney, Ken Schumacher of smalliefishing.com and myself had about 3 hours on saturday 5/24/08 to fish. We headed out to Rio Fuego (in chicagoland).

The baits used? Ugh..good question. I know that 3,4&5" Senkos in darker colors were used. Whacky rigged or on a 1/8 oz Sliderhead jig. I know that 4" Berkley powergrubs on 1/8oz Sliderhead jigs were used and did outstanding. A Chug Bug was used and got hit immediately (Topwater time has officially started. There's your big tip for the week). A tube jig was used and that caught fish. A small chatterbait got popped a time or two.Flies were used and got tapped a few times too. And ofcourse the Savage Gear Rattle Shad got nailed by yet another trophy bass on cast NUMBER FRIGGIN ONE!
I think the Lucky Craft Pointer was the only dismal failure. It caught one channel cat. Go figure.

How many noteworthy fish in those 3 hours? Ok..listen. We do NOT count dinks. If we counted dinks I'd put it at 60. But since we're only counting largemouth and smallmouth that are the size featured in the photos...I'll say 30 conservatively. Maybe 40. Honestly we were catching so many that we lost count.

So on with the show. Because only 1 out of 100 of you actually read anything that we just wrote anyway :) We understand. After all..we are Customfish. Our whole lives are built around fishing photography. Now here's some fish porn for ya.


The Master of Disaster. Ken Schumcaher.


Dude...our greengills eat 4" baits!!!


Rich Delaney: Famous muskie angler, yet he'll still kick your can on bass.



1)tie on chug bug 2)make one cast 3)smile and bask in one's glory.










( I didn't know Kenny Rogers fished either.)


I tell ya what. The first person to send me a picture of a bass bigger than that caught between today on when I leave gets a print for free.




Rich with a Neosho Strain "Spike" smallimouth bass. They fight 3 times harder than a northern smallmouth.





Here's a couple shots from 5/15-5/16. Nothing special. Just a couple nice pics courtesy of a Canon A-95 and a Joby Gorillapod Tripod (dont have one yet??? Well let me show you how well it works. Look.)

A big crappie that nailed a Smack Tackle Gizz3.


A nice Illinois pond smallouth bass that hit a Savage Gear Prey115
( Hey..ya like that shirt? CLICK HERE to buy one!)

And last but not leat...this!!!
As you know I plan on throwing some pretty amazing baits on the upcoming trip. Most will be from Savage Gear, Smack Tackle and Dunwright Tackle. But I have a few specialties from Customlures(That's our own hand crafted baits) and some hand painted BIG FISH lures from Mad Scientist Productions.
If you want more info on Mad Scientist productions just drop me an email.
The lures made by Mad Scientist are...well...SICK! And I can't wait to throw them.
If you know 2 about me they are these:
1) My friends and I can flat out fish. Anywhere...anytime.
2) If I had it my way there'd be a Tarantino film about fishing.
And with that in mind I contracted Mad Scientist Productions to handcraft me a bait for the upcoming trip to Taltson Bay Big Pike Lodge.
One of the craftsmen who works for Mad Scientist is this cat named Hatori Hanzo. I've bought one of his swords before (Budd's sword, to be exact). He worked on this very bait......
The HANZO SPOOK.




What does the Japanese writing on it say?
One word.
"Pray."

See? I told you it was sick.

Have a good couple of weeks everyone. I'm off with John to the Arctic. Mike and Rich are Off to fish with Pat in Florida. Stay tuned. We're gonna blow your friggin minds when we get back.
Adios amigos!

Signed,
Jamie Riani -The Vincent Vega of fishing-