Of the many smallmouth bass Dan Blaszinski caught from Green Bay, his biggest of the year came on Friday.

He caught the 22-inch, 6.75-pound smallie on a jigging spoon, an underutilized technique I think.

“All fish are always CPR when you are fishing for giants,” Blaszinski emailed.

CPR is fishing shorthand for catch, photograph and release.

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 (formerly Twitter) (@BowmanOutside), Instagram (@BowmanOutside) or Bluesky (@BowmanOutside).