Want to know the state of the rut in Illinois? Take George Katsigiannis, aka George Kats, who arrowed two 11-pointers in three days last week.

The 13-year-old from Lombard harvested both with a crossbow in Bureau County.

His dad, Billy Kats, messaged that the biggest buck was “harvested chasing a doe and the second one [pictured] was harvested Thursday doing the same thing.”

Billy Kats directed and wrote the 2017 film, “A Season to Remember,” a moving award-winning tribute to and remembrance of his late father George teaching about life and the outdoors.

So a family tradition deepens.

Click here for a background column I did before the film was released.

Below is a YouTube trailer of “A Season to Remember.”

BOTW, the celebration of big bucks and their stories or (the stories matter, as this one shows) around Chicago fishing, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times. Sometimes, such as this case, it is DOTW.

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