Emily Fowler and Erin West earn Fish of the Week honors in a special week of fishing the record November warmth.

Emily Fowler and Erin West earn Fish of the Week honors in a special week of fishing during the record November warmth.

By Dale Bowman

Emily Fowler boated a good lake trout while fishing for smallmouth bass off Chicago. Provided photo — Emily Fowler boated a good lake trout while fishing for smallmouth bass off Chicago.

Jackson Kennedy nominated his girlfriend, Emily Fowler, who caught the surprise of a good lake trout while smallmouth fishing in 25 feet off Chicago.

“She had a follow, a hook up and a break off and then finally landed this one!,” Kennedy emailed. “No idea how it fit in my little bass net nor how a size 2 drop-shot hook stayed in its mouth!”

Staying with a theme, Frankie Paull nominated his girlfriend, Erin West, who caught this largemouth bass from Jericho Lake in Aurora.

“The bass are schooled up in the quarries right now, we have had many days of 10-plus bass averaging 3 pounds,” emailed Paull, nephew of Bob Cary, late outdoor editor for the Chicago Daily News.

Erin West caught one of the good largemouth bass from Jericho Lake. Provided photo — Erin West caught one of the good largemouth bass from Jericho Lake.

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 https://chicago.suntimes.com/outdoors goes up at varied days of the week, depending on what is going on the wide world of the outdoors.

Submit nominations by message on Facebook (Dale Bowman), on Twitter (@BowmanOutside) and Instagram (@BowmanOutside) or email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com).