Fish of the Week: Tale of the tape, family, a straw bale and last casts

To extrapolate the size of this largemouth bass, know that Garrett Majernik is 49 inches.

“This is obviously not the largest fish caught this past week but, in the eyes of my 5-year-old grandson and his proud father, there will never be a larger!” proud grandfather Kerry Loiselle emailed.

Garrett, son of Lauren and Andrew Majernik, was fishing a subdivison pond in Bloomington Sunday evening.

“Garrett has fished for about two years now and has graduated to a spinning rod and reel this spring,” Loiselle emailed. “This pond they were fishing had tall growth along the shore line. But there happened to be a bale of straw, evidently used by short anglers earlier this year. Garrett’s Dad said it was time to go home as the sun was setting. Garrett, as is typical of previous trips, said just a couple more casts. You can figure out what happened from the picture. The only assistance Dad gave the boy was to steady his shoulders so he would not fall off the bale of straw.”

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (the stories matter, as this one shows) around Chicago fishing, runs Wednesdays in the Sun-Times. Submit nominations by message on Facebook (Dale Bowman), on Twitter (@BowmanOutside) and Instagram (@BowmanOutside) or email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com).