‘Biggest fish of my life,’ a flathead catfish from the Fox River, earns Fish of the Week

Jake Krueker’s biggest fish of his life, a flathead catfish caught from the Fox River, earns Fish of the Week.

By Dale Bowman

Jake Kueker shares the joy of his biggest flathead catfish, caught from the Fox River. Provided photo — Jake Kueker shares the joy of his biggest flathead catfish, caught from the Fox River.

Jake Kueker caught a 45.5-inch flathead catfish with a girth of 31 inches on June 25 from the Fox River in McHenry County.

“Biggest fish of my life,” he messaged.

The catfish length/girth chart at KingoftheCats.org put the weight at 49 pounds.

He caught it on a 6-inch live bluegill.

“Just curious, what’s the largest one you’ve ever seen [from the Fox]?” he wondered.

Best I can tell is that honor goes to Erik Martinez with a 52-pound flathead from Elgin.

Krueker’s flathead deserves a full-length view.

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 atchicago.suntimes.com/outdoorsgoes 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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