Monday

Angler Profiles

( to get on the Taltson Bay E-mail list for updates, please drop me a line at jamie@customfish.com and Ill add you to the list. Thanks)


We're going to be starting a new feature here on the blog: ANGLER PROFILES! As an elite group of 60ish of the best anglers on the planet, it's nice to be able to know who is who when the stories are told.

Please copy the questions, put them in an email and send them to me jamie@customfish.com and I'll put them up on the site. Feel free to send me a great picture too!
Thanks all!!!

Name:
Age:
Occupation:
Fishing background:
What brought you to Taltson Bay? :
What's your biggest pike at Taltson? :
What's your favorite lure(s)? :
What are your best Taltson Stories? :
When are you going back this year? :
Comments?:


_____________________________________________________________________

Name: Jamie Riani ( webmaster for Taltsonbaypike.com and the facebook page)

Age: 41

Occupation: Large Format Digital printing / owner of Customfish.com


Fishing background: I started fishing during family trips to Tomahawk WI when I was a little kid. As a teenager I honed my skills on some of the toughest waters to succesfully fish; Salt Creek in Addison, Il and it's chain of retention ponds catching carp, green sunfish, and largemouth.
I graduated to Lake Geneva where I fished for a decade and then Delevan where I have fished for the last 10 years. We chase pike, bass, walleyes and musky.
I'm an avid smallmouth angler, lucky to have a home within blocks of the DuPage River where I often wade or kayak. I also fish The Fox River as well as several area lakes for smallmouth and largemouth. My biggest smallie is a 23". Biggest largemouth a 22.5"
I also have a nicely stocked 2 acre bass pond outside my back door which keeps me and my son busy with bass and crappies.
I fish Pipestone in NW Ontario every year as well since 2005 targeting huge Smallmouth and bonus muskies & pike.

What brought you to Taltson Bay? : It was a dream trip for me. Much like most of us, I had heard about it from a couple friends who have been there multiple times. I have a love for pike fishing due to my years fishing Tomahawk.

How long have you been going to Taltson? : 4 years so far. 2007 partnered with John Mich. 2008-present partnered with Bill Kallenberg.

What's your biggest pike at Taltson? : 47"

What's your favorite lure(s)? : I go with the Savage Gear 4-Play ( 8"), The Storm Kickin' Minnow, Bulldawg, Mepp's Muskie Killer, Dick Pearson's Grinder.


What are your best Taltson Stories? : Oh man..there's alot of them! From dressing up in luau surfer hawiian clothes with Kallenberg, blasting Beach Boys tunes and decorating our boat with tiki gear, a skull, and a dancing hula girl to wearing a cowboy hat for most of the 2009 trip. I've done a couple "lodge surgeries" on crewmembers with Krazy Glue and hockey tape..those were all fun. I took a leak down by the burn pile in 2007 and didn't realize there was a bear 20' away ( that was a mess!).
But I think the best was a 2 hour span in 2008 when Billy and I sat in one spot in Beck's Channel and caught one huge trophy after another! It was no more than 30something degrees with a 20mph wind from the north ( June 3rd I think). We've NEVER been so cold in our lives but we couldnt leave the bite. It was the most unreal and painfully awesome fishing I've ever seen at Taltson!! INSANE!

When are you going back this year? : August 20th. That's our week now. I thought June was cool, but with 3 Augusts under my belt, I dig August more.

Comments?: I'd just like to say that I am very very proud to do what I do for the camp as the web guy and I'm proud to be an alumni member with a group of roughly 60 of the most hardcore anglers on the planet. I think it's pretty cool that we are a rather elite and exclusive group And even though we may not know each other personally we know the photos, faces and names of our fellow great pike anglers. Basically I think that we fish the best pike waters on Earth and we all kick ass doing it!


Jamie with a nice mid 40's pike from the trolling trough. August 2010.