Mark Englert caught a big surprise Friday while casting a crayfish-colored Fat Rap for largemouth bass on the Mississippi River near Savanna.
“He thought that you would enjoy the photo,” his wife Mila Englert emailed.
He’s right. I love gar.
And the St. Charles man boated a big one, a longnose gar estimated at 15 pounds and 45 inches. Mila said he could not have gotten the fish in the boat without help from his friends Jeff Groch of Des Plaines and Glen Simmonds of St. Charles. It was released.
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).