David King caught a 32-pound, 3-ounce, 39-inch flathead catfish on June 12 while fishing for smallmouth bass on the Kankakee River. The Wheaton man was using a Livingston Lures lipless crankbait.
I’m impressed with his landing a fish that big with his bait and bass gear; it’s no small feat.
In recent years, flathead catfish on the Kankakee River have rebounded noticeably. I know I noticed it over the years at fish-collection day for the annual summer derby.
The FOTW deserves a vertical view.
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 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).
