Life history as Fish of the Week: Bahamas to LaSalle Lake

Jason Fox’s “most cherished memories are my grandpa, dad, uncle and me on a little 18-footer reef-fishing with hand lines in Freeport, Bahamas. Also spearing lobsters and diving conch, awesome times. Fishing is in the blood.”

Last week, Fox paid back his dad Ken, who was born on Long Island, Bahamas in 1947, but now lives in Des Plaines. Fox took his dad fishing for blue catfish at LaSalle Lake.

“We chummed with canned mackerel and had fish under the boat all day,” Fox emailed. “First spot we anchored at, I had so many marks it was crazy. He also enjoyed the unique cooling lake, couldn’t believe the 70-degree water, a truly great day.”

His dad normally didn’t like rod fishing and only bought his first license at 68.

“I set him up with some 20-pound Big Game Monafilament and let him do his thing,” Fox said. “We got on them pretty good. I knew he would love catfishing, it’s very similar to reef fishing. We got 12 decent ones, biggest was 4 pounds and we both lost one that felt like double digits.”

A good day for Fox, whose grandfather was a fishermen who made his living hand-lining.

I enjoyed this FOTW as much for the story as the fish.

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and good stories, runs Wednesdays on the Sun-Times outdoors page. The story part matters.

Send nominations by Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or email (straycasts@sbcglobal.net).