RJ “Ron” Thomas emailed a truth, “The best thing old guys can do for the sport is to take young people fishing and teach them how to be successful at it.” Thomas—”Parkinson’s disease hasn’t hurt my fishing ability!”—knows something about life.

Before Thomas fished with Capt. Andy Schiera of Veteran Guide Service on Sunday, Schiera asked if he minded if he brought his son, Micheal, 7, along to fish muskie on the Chain O’Lakes.

“Less than an hour after Michael joined us, a nice muskie decided to bite,” Thomas emailed. “After about five minutes of tug of war, Andy netted Michael’s first, a 38.5-incher that cooperated for the picture and was then released.”

Michael’s muskie was big fish of the day.

“It is rather humbling to be outfished by a seven-year-old,” Thomas emailed. “Certainly a neat early Christmas present for three anglers.”

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).