Remember the mid-March day that felt like spring (the tease)?
With his pier pass, Luke Venegoni took advantage to cast lipless crankbaits and ChatterBaits in hopes of smallmouth bass or “whatever will bite” from a pier on the Chicago lakefront.
After a few casts, a northern pike “crushed” his lure.
“Kinda fought like a log, but I didn’t have a net, so it made for a very sketchy and exciting landing!” he emailed.
It roughly measured 38-40 inches on his rod.
The pier-pass program ends Thursday, March 31, then the piers are locked until boating season in May.
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).
