Ron Urick caught a big prespawn largemouth bass—19.75 inches, pushing 5 pounds—Wednesday on a Lake County lake he dubbed “Walden Pone One.” The retired teacher (and decorated author of “Teaching with Heart”) is adept at catching big bass. This one was special because it came on a classic 35-year-old lure, a Mann’s Baby 1-Minus.

“It’s gonna be a sad day when I lose this Minus One!!,” he texted. “At least 1,000 bass were caught on it, largemouth and smallmouth!! I’ve climbed trees to retrieve it.”

Provided

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. The online posting here at chicago.suntimes.com/outdoorsgoes up at varied days of the week, depending on what is going on in the wide world of the outdoors.

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