Fish of the Week: Two pike from the Des Plaines River

Late fall and early winter draw a few hardy sorts to fish northern pike on the Des Plaines River, so we double up for FOTW.

Marcus Beneschcaught his “last good one of 2013 ” on a firetiger J-13 Rapala while kayak fishing in Lake County.

“A really heavy 32-inch that jumped two feet out of the water without unbuckling somehow,” he emailed.

Ryan Hurleycaught a 34-incher around 9:20 p.m. Nov. 22 on a minnow under a bobber.

Just as there are many ways to catch the same species of fish, 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).