Sharing a first Chicago walleye and a Chicago river assessment

Philip Jordan caught his first Chicago walleye last week and gave a clear-eyed of fishing the Chicago River.

They were fishing the North Branch when the walleye came.

"It was a really fun multi-species day," he messaged on Instagram. "We caught some healthy-sized crappie, a fat catfish, too many largemouth [bass] to count, and even a white bass. It’s nice to see so many fish thriving in the river!

"It’s sad to see how much litter is on the riverbank, but progress is progress!"

That's a notable catch and a well-rounded assessment of fishing the Chicago River.

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (sometimes the stories are odd, such as this one) 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 (@BowmanOutside), Instagram (@BowmanOutside) or Bluesky (@BowmanOutside.bsky.social).