Kyle Lund was fishing a live bluegill by a logjam last week below the Kankakee dam when he checked on his buddy, who hadn’t fished in years.
Then Lund looked back “in time to see [his] rod slowly start to bend in half, then stay there,” he messaged. “I picked the rod out of the holder, reeled down on the fish, and straight into the tree it pulled me. ... I got him out of the tree and he shot upstream like a missile. After about five minutes of the fish having its way with me, he started to head downstream.”
Lund thought the fish had pulled the hook reeling up to him. At first glance, Lund guessed 30 pounds, then lifted it and guessed 40. It weighed 42.9 pounds. After quick photos, he released it “for someone else to tangle with another day.”
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.
To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or Instagram (@BowmanOutside).
