Fish of the Week goes beyond big bass at Braidwood opener

Cindy Kwiecinski messaged that her husband Joe caught a 4.79-pound largemouth bass Friday on opening day at Braidwood Lake. He earns Fish of the Week.

But fishing is just part of the opener at Braidwood. The cooling lake in southwest Will County is built on the remnants of coal mining, including the gaudy landmark mine spoil of Torino Hill on the south end.

Dale Bowman

Their son Ryan “Ski” Kwiecinski described the draw of opening day on Facebook to Tim Rachoy as, “Tradition tacos bags music can’t beat it.”

Kwiecinski, who camped out overnight, arrived at 2 p.m. Thursday, but was only third in line. Pete Banach was the earliest at 10:45 a.m.

Father-and-son Kwiecinski caught 53 fish Friday morning, highlighted by Joe’s big bass. The father-and-son have a long history in fishing, as I documented in a column about eight years ago when “Ski” was a senior at Sandburg.

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.

To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com ) or contact me on Facebook ( Dale Bowman ), X ( @BowmanOutside ), Instagram ( @BowmanOutside ) or Bluesky ( @BowmanOutside.bsky.social ).