Outdoors Sports

Chasing the dream of big fish: An early big coho and a personal-best crappie share Fish of the Week

Charles Zheng’s personal-best crappie and Tom Vaitkus Jr.’s big early coho share Fish of the Week honors.

By Dale Bowman

Charles Zheng celebrated his birthday with a personal-best crappie. Provided photo — Charles Zheng celebrated his birthday with a personal-best crappie.

The hunt for big fish is on from Lake Michigan to inland waters.

Charles Zheng celebrated his birthday weekend with his parents, then with a fish of a lifetime for him, an 18-inch crappie caught and released from private waters in northern Illinois.

“While they don’t come often, stormy days are magical for the crappie bite anywhere,” he emailed.

Tom Vaitkus Jr. weighed a coho at 9 pounds, 3 ounces at Henry’s Sports and Bait, where Steve Palmisano texted on Saturday, “On a powerline on the South Side.”

Tom Vaitkus Jr. caught a big early coho to share Fish of the Week honors. Photo provided by Henry’s Sports and Bait — Tom Vaitkus Jr. caught a big early coho to share Fish of the Week honors.

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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