Catfish, The Big Three: Fish of the Week

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We stick to catfish this week for a theme and celebrate the big three for FOTW.

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Larry Jennings sent a reminder (above) that LaSalle Lake remains the optimum spot for shore fishing for blue catfish, Illinois’ biggest gamefish.

Jerome Kackert of Aurora did a heckuva job (left) landing a big flathead, by Fox River standards, on 10-pound line in a 25-minute battle, an epic fight.

It hit a night crawler immediately. He estimated it at 30 pounds and released it.

Bill Freeman of Chicago’s West Side did all right (below) for a big channel catfish.

He caught it on Bluff Lake on Aug. 21 with crawlers.

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).

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