Gary Niewierowski emailed about his son, Matthew, catching a “lunker” largemouth bass on a plastic worm at a neighborhood pond in the northwest suburbs.

“Thought you might get a kick out of him using his size 12 shoe for a size comparison,” Gary emailed.

He thought correctly. I’ve done many fish comparisons by my shoe or sandal and have received many photos from readers of the same. But in those cases, the footwear was all being worn on the feet.

Here’s a cheer for foot-loose shoe measurement of big fish. That’s a different way of doing it that just brightens my day all day.

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