Chicago outdoors: Guys, gossip and gals

Frank Hyla has added another gig.

And Woodridge’s Gary Dew has a good story.

Those two open the first version of Chicago Outdoors: Guys, Gossip and Gals, a sort of catchall for stuff I hear and know, and don’t have anywhere else to put it.

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I heard last week that Hyla, he of local tournament fishing fame and the Time on the Water fishing television show (with its focus on area waters), was working on buying Riverview Marine in Spring Valley.

It’s not a rumor any more. I talked to Frank at the Chicago Muskie Show on Saturday. The deal was done late last week.

He and his silent partner, a Chicago businessman with a love of fishing, have big plans for the shop just before the bridge over the Illinois River. Those plans include putting in an archery range.

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Dew “hit the grand slam” in late August.

If I get a chance, I will try to post a better version of his 53-inch muskie. He gave me a better photo I need to scan.

After 17 years of trying, he caught his first 50-inch muskie, the 53 above.

I bumped into Dew milling around with Pat Harrison (a wealth of stories in itself) at the Muskie Show.

One of those stories was Dew’s muskie.

He said, “I hit the grand slam. I caught my first 50-inch muskie on a topwater in a tournament and it was the big fish of the tournament.”

The fish nailed a chartruese and black, 7-inch LOWRider on Leech Lake during a Muskies Inc. Challunge on Aug. 26.

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I was very sorry to hear from Frank that “Baitshop Bob” Hennig, an institution at Riverview, is going through with a very rough patch after back surgery.

My heart is with him.