Chicago River’s common carp still have ‘Big Shoulders’ downtown

Jesse Gonzalez caught his personal-best carp from the Chicago River to earn Fish of the Week.

By Dale Bowman

Jesse Gonzalez holds his personal-best carp on the banks of the Chicago River downtown. Provided photo — Jesse Gonzalez holds his personal-best carp on the banks of the Chicago River downtown.

Jeffrey Williams messaged on Tuesday that his brother, Jesse Gonzalez, had upped his personal best carp with a 28-pound common carp caught on corn from the Chicago River downtown.

Carp aren’t the sexiest or most-hyped species in the Chicago River system, but, as far as I know, they are still the biggest.

Plus that photo brings back memories of the Chicago Carp Classic, which drew an international field of anglers when it was a major event in the 1990s.

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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An old favorite of the Chicago River, the common carp, still have ‘Big Shoulders’ downtown

Jesse Gonzalez caught his personal-best carp from the Chicago River to earn Fish of the Week.