Big, really big, Cook County largemouth bass: Fish of the Week

When Larry Green catches his biggest largemouth bass, he does it with flair and a story.

Take the 24-inch, 7.8-pound largemouth he landed Sunday while ice fishing in southwester Cook County.

“We were packing up, avoiding the bum’s rush to leave at sunset and, as I went to collect my rod set up on a HT rod holder ice tip up, I noticed the line was disconnected and the flag wasn’t tripped,’’ Green messaged. “As I started to retrieve it, I realized I might need some assistance and yelled for Gerardo [Perez].’’

Perez helped Green wrestle it up on the ice.

“Thought it was a big cat, then it was dancing on ice,’’ Green messaged. “It nearly didn’t fit through an 8-inch ice hole.’’

What was dancing on the ice was one of the great largemouth bass, ice fishing or open water, from a Forest Preserves of Cook County lake.

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and good stories, runs Wednesdays on the Sun-Times outdoors page. The story part or fishing of the moment, such as this one, matters as much as the big fish part, generally.

Send nominations by Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or email (straycasts@sbcglobal.net).