Outdoors Sports

Here’s to really big panfish: A thick, long bluegill and fat thick perch earn Fish of the Week honors

Sam Joseph Militello Jr. caught some worthy panfish while ice fishing to earn FOTW honors.

By Dale Bowman

Sam Joseph Militello Jr. with a 10.5-inch bluegill from Lake County. Provided photo — Sam Joseph Militello Jr. with a 10.5-inch bluegill from Lake County.

Sam Joseph Militello Jr. caught “some beautiful local northern Illinois” panfish last week. He was fishing private waters in Lake County.

“Fattest 11.5-inch perch I’ve ever caught or seen for that matter and a 10.5-inch and almost 1.5-pound bluegill [above],” he messaged.

Sam Joseph Militello Jr. holds the big bluegill in his hand for perspective. Provided photo — Sam Joseph Militello Jr. holds the big bluegill in his hand for perspective.

Here’s to fat panfish. And I have a thing for big bluegill, but the perch [below] is a notable fish, too. All in all, I just glad that readers respect panfish enough to send them regularly for Fish of the Week.

Sam Joseph Militello Jr. with a fat perch from Lake County. Provided photo — Sam Joseph Militello Jr. with a fat perch from Lake County.

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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