A 13-year-old catches his first Atlantic salmon while spey fishing

Christian Orlando holds his first Atlantic salmon. (Provided)

Christian Orlando added to “quite a year,” as his dad Joe put it, with his first Atlantic salmon. The 13-year-old eighth-grader from Western Springs caught his landlocked Atlantic salmon from Torch Lake in northern Michigan while spey fishing, a method of casting a fly.

I did not realize there were landlocked Atlantics in Michigan. Most of the salmon stocked in the Great Lakes are Pacific salmon, such as Chinook and coho.

Here’s a full-length view of the Christian and his fish.

Full length view of Christian Orlando holding his first Atlantic salmon. (Provided)

In May, Christian also earned Fish of the Week for his first steelhead, caught fly fishing the Muskegon River in Michigan. Click here to read that.

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (the stories matter, as this one shows) around Chicago fishing, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times. The online posting here at chicago.suntimes.com/outdoors goes up at varied days of the week, depending on what is going on in the wide world of the outdoors.

To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or Instagram (@BowmanOutside).