FOTW for Dec. 6, 2023. photo attached

Philip chose the less-traveled path Thanksgiving on the Chicago lakefront.

It paid off with a steelhead.

“I love fishing on Thanksgiving,” he messaged on Instagram. “It usually means that most anglers are downtown jockeying for the best perch spot, which leaves the harbors mostly empty, except for my most prized pursuit: steelhead. I hooked up with this buck at Diversey Harbor floating spawn bags (king salmon eggs) about 6 or 7 feet down.

“He gave me a decent fight, and I was able to land and release him without incident. He’s out there now for someone else to chase!”

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).