Tim Frey might have caught the biggest fish, a 30-pound lake trout, caught in the Illinois waters of Lake Michigan this year.
He fishes regularly on Lake Michigan, launching from Diversey in his 19.5-foot Triumph, “Research.’’ On Saturday, he ventured forth with three friends: Ricky Young, Joey “Bag of Donuts’’ Pierri and “Seasick Dan’’ Stachowicz.
“It was a wet and wild ride in the 4- to 7-foot waves, other larger boats said they saw the whole boat leave the water completely,’’ Frey said.
It was worth it.
“I got me a monster, probably my biggest fish of all,’’ said Frey, a Schiller Park man who co-founded carguygarage.com. “It was just off the R4 [buoy off the north suburbs] in 75 feet of water on 10 colors of Lead Core line on a spoon. I can’t even think of the spoon, kind of a rainbow spoon.’’
It took about 45 minutes to boat, and came in feeling like “a chair or something.’’ The laker weighed 30 pounds on a Boga-Grip.
“I wish we were getting it mounted, but we cut it up,’’ Frey said.
The Illinois-record laker–38 pounds, 4 ounces–was caught by Theodore Rullman on Aug. 22, 1999 in Lake County waters.
FOTW, the celebration of big fish and good stories around Chicago fishing, appears Wednesdays on the Sun-Times outdoors page.
Send nominations to straycasts@sbcglobal.net or via Facebook (Dale Bowman) or Twitter (@BowmanOutside).
