Fish of the Week: Early salmon

Many of us wondered if the favorable south and southwest winds last week would be enough to peel off the hot water piled on the Chicago shoreline and spark the fall return of salmon.

At least to a degree, it did. Witness the 8.6 pounder caught by Eddy Hudson Friday along Chicago’s South Side shoreline.

Ray Hinton, one of the lakefront’s fishing gurus, guessed conditions might be right and picked up Hudson, a wonderful artist.

“My calling was right on target,” Hinton said. “ `It’s hot,’ Eddy said. `But the lake is cool,’ I responded. `They are here!’ On my third cast, a nice salmon followed me right up to the shore.

Less than a minute later, Hudson hooked up while casting a spinner and had a battle royale for four or five minutes.

“Whoo,” Hinton said. “See ya soon.”

Email nominations for FOTW, the weekly celebration of big fish stories from around Chicago fishing in the Sun-Times outdoors page on Wednesdays, to straycasts@sbcglobal.net.