Big flatheads on little tungsten jigs: A flurry of big flatheads on the ice at the Chain O’Lakes

With a lot of help, Brain Marcinkiewicz caught a 28.89-pound flathead catfish Saturday on the Chain O’Lakes on a 2 mm tungsten jig on 2-pound line.

“It was the second 25-pound-plus flathead we got on the same day,” he messaged. “Jimbo Starwalt and Sam Barton helped drill extra holes and jammed their arms into the water to pull her out for me.”

The battle lasted roughly half an hour.

“Tony Zerafin caught one as well,” Marcinkiewicz messaged. “We had four giant flatheads on in an hour, doubles at one point.”

He noted that “all the big girls were released for other anglers to enjoy.”

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 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).