Redhorse, drum and father-son time: Young angler, out with his dad, makes notable catches around Chicago

Jack Caunter caught notable freshwater drum and shorthead redhorse this fall to earn Fish of the Week honors with a delightful side note on father-son time.

SHARE Redhorse, drum and father-son time: Young angler, out with his dad, makes notable catches around Chicago
Jack Caunter, 7, his big freshwater drum caught and released on the Chicago River downtown. Provided photo

Jack Caunter, 7, his big freshwater drum caught and released on the Chicago River downtown.

Provided

Jack Caunter, 7, may have caught the biggest freshwater drum landed on the Chicago River.

More importantly, his dad Brian said, “I take him out every other night and we watch the sun set and fish for an hour.”

That’s doing it right.

Jack caught his drum Sept. 18 on a worm near the Wells Street Bridge as they were packing to leave.

“He usually fishes with a worm,” said Brian, who works at Henry’s Sports and Bait.

Jack Caunter, 7, holds a shorthead redhorse he caught and released at Diversey Harbor. Provided photo

Jack Caunter, 7, holds a shorthead redhorse he caught and released at Diversey Harbor.

Provided

Also this fall, interrupting his Pokémon game, Jack caught a redhorse sucker on a worm at Diversey Harbor while his dad cast for salmon.

“He was screaming, he thought he had a salmon on,” Brian said.

I forwarded the redhorse photo to Olaf Nelson, redhorse aficionado and holder of the Illinois shorthead redhorse record (3 pounds, 11.8 ounces 4 pounds, 12.8 ounces) who replied, “Shorthead redhorse. Did they keep it or get any measurements? Hard to tell without something for scale, but looks like it could be in state-record territory. As much as I don’t want to say that.”

Jack’s redhorse was released without measurements.

For now, Nelson’s record is safe.

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).

Brian Caunter, father of Jack, scoops large fatheads out for David Strasser during the pandemic rush at Henry’s Sports and Bait in June 2020. Credit: Dale Bowman

Brian Caunter, father of Jack, scoops large fatheads out for David Strasser during the pandemic rush at Henry’s Sports and Bait in June 2020.

Dale Bowman

The Latest
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”
That the Bears can just diesel their way in, Bronko Nagurski-style, and attempt to set a sweeping agenda for the future of one of the world’s most iconic water frontages is more than a bit troubling.