Really good sign for kings coming to shore in Chicago

Rich Zelazowski came close to getting his first Chinook of the season from shore on Saturday, then got it done in fine style Monday morning with an 18-pound king . . . with some help from Wayne Hankins and the folks of Salmon Nightmares.

"My knees are still shaking," Zelazowski said just after leaving the small anglers' lot at Burnham.

He caught a big king near the pipe connecting the north end of Burnham Harbor to Lake Michigan. He was using a Tennessee shad Berkley bait.

"Saturday I had something on the same lure for about five seconds," he said.

Monday when he tried to net his king, he realized he would have trouble, even with his net extended. The fish was big enough to stay out of reach.

That's when Hankins and friends asked if he wanted help.

"We landed it," Hankins said. "It was pretty epic. . . . Don't forget the dramatizing part."

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (the stories matter) around Chicago fishing, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times.

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