Jack Stevens caught the surprise of a big sauger on Thursday from the Des Plaines River in Romeoville.

“Water level was very high, so I was targeting underpasses with structure,” Stevens emailed. “I was fishing with a 4 1/2-inch Megabass Vision jerkbait and it got stopped in its tracks. Set the hook and thought I for sure had a pike. Pulled up this sauger instead.”

Sauger are a rare submission for Fish of the Week. This was a worthy one.

“Unfortunately I was unprepared and didn’t have a scale/tape on me,” Stevens emailed in anticipation of my question.

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.

To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or Instagram (@BowmanOutside).