Brendan Bruno joined the parade of those catching northern pike longer than 40 inches on the Chicago lakefront.

On Oct. 13, the 15-year-old caught a 41-inch pike at Montrose Harbor while fishing with his uncle Patrick Bruno.

“We weren’t targeting anything in particular, rather just trying to see what was biting in the harbors,” Brendan Bruno emailed. “We were throwing deep-diving jerkbaits (8-20 feet) against the walls and docks. This was the only fish landed that day of the five fish we had on.”

It was his personal-best pike, but he noted, “I’ve got muskie and catfish that were bigger.”

Bruno continues a thread that has run through Fish of the Week this year.

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).