Outdoors Sports

Another big muskie on ice: Caught while walleye fishing

Matt Madlener’s muskie through the ice was overshadowed earlier this month but richly deserves its Fish of the Week.

By Dale Bowman

Matt Madlener with a big Chain O’Lakes muskie through the ice. Provided photo — Matt Madlener with a big Chain O’Lakes muskie through the ice.

Matt Madlener of T-Bone Guide Service caught a 46-inch muskie through the ice earlier this month while jigging for walleye on the Chain O’Lakes, Lance Litviak messaged.

It’s been that kind of year for ice fishing.

That’s a big healthy muskie, but it was originally overshadowed by the 52-inch muskie caught by Luis Gonzalez on Jan. 12. Click here to read that column.

I just find it fun that we have ice anglers good enough to land big muskies through the ice.

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.

To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or Instagram (@BowmanOutside).

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