Muskie caught and released while crappie fishing

Juan Macias was fishing for crappie at Busse Woods Sunday when he caught a muskie.

On his first day of open-water fishing this year.

“Tried bobber and plastics with only few captures,” he messaged. “About 2 o’clock, I switched for crappie rig and minnows. Oh, surprise, after five minutes bamm!!! This beautiful musky almost takes away the rod from my hands. Amazing fight for about 20 [minutes] to land the beautiful fish. I put it back in the water after a picture for the next time!!!”

On a side note, the Illinois state record muskie before the current one was caught while crappie fishing.

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (the stories matter, as this one shows) around Chicago fishing, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times.

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