Fish of the Week: River muskie & a cigar

Everybody needs sunshine in winter; and John “Sunshine” Pajak found some Saturday when he went to “wade my favorite winter musky spot and to have a quick cigar” on a day with an air temperature of 18 degrees.

On his fourth cast with a classic 1 1/4-ounce red-and-white Dardelve spoon, he hooked and landed a muskie just under 40 inches.

“Worst part was holding it in the water reviving her, but she did swim off healthy,” he emailed.

There are many ways to send nominations for FOTW, the weekly celebration of big fish around Chicago fishing on the Sun-Times outdoors page each Wednesday: Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or email (straycasts@sbcglobal.net).