First Chinook from shore: Pull of fall shoreline fishing for kings described through a first one

This fall feels like a good one for anglers catching their first shoreline Chinook.

Take Terry Benjamin of Prospect Heights, nominated by his neighbor/co-worker/fishing buddy Mark Bestvina.

On Sept. 10, they were pier fishing around Waukegan when Benjamin caught his first salmon.

“I did the netting and took the picture, it was quite a thrill to land the fish,” Bestvina emailed. “I’ve been fishing the lakefront for 40-plus years and I’ve seen the good years and the bad.”

The 15-pound-plus king was caught around 10 p.m. An hour later, Bestvina caught a 12-pound king.

“I had the biggest smile on my face while we drove home,” he emailed. “We had to work the next day and got to bed around 2 a.m. Our butts were dragging at work the next day (7 a.m. start).”

That captures the pull of fall shoreline Chinook.

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).