Secrets of the big blue catfish at LaSalle Lake

Tom Konow provided proof that some big blue catfish remain at LaSalle Lake, the cooling lake south of Seneca, even after the significant fish kill in 2020.

By Dale Bowman

Tom Konow holds his big blue catfish caught from LaSalle Lake.

Tom Konow emailed proof that “not all the big fish died” after the significant fish kill at LaSalle Lake in 2020.

On April 4, he caught this 43-inch, 40-pound blue catfish from the cooling lake south of Seneca.

“The bite has been slow for the bigger fish, but using 12-foot rods with 50-pound braid and big cut bluegill for bait [I also] got a 20-pounder today and 26-pounder a couple days before,” he emailed.

He uses the 12-foot rods for distance casting.

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).

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Secrets of the big blue catfish at LaSalle Lake: Proof comes that some of the really big blues remain

Tom Konow provided proof that some big blue catfish remain at LaSalle Lake, the cooling lake south of Seneca, even after the significant fish kill in 2020.