Jim Sajdyk and his nephew Justin Copak illustrate the difficulty comparing fish photos in this goodbye to Heidecke Lake, which closes Tuesday.
Both walleye were 24 inches. Both were caught and released Friday at Heidecke.
“It was slow but we did catch these two walleye casting the rock shoreline,” Sajdyk messaged.
When I asked about the very faint white spot on the tail of his walleye, Sajdyk replied, “Funny thing is I caught that fish second cast in the morning. We stopped at that spot on the way in, same area, and my nephew caught the other fish. We thought they were the same fish, but I noticed a little bit of difference with the tail.”
From the photos, I thought Sajdyk’s was significantly bigger.
“Yeah, it looks bigger, but it isn’t,” Sajdyk messaged. “My nephew wanted his to look that big. I started laughing.”
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/outdoorsgoes up at varied days of the week, depending on what is going on in 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).
