Another really big pike caught on the Chicago lakefront
Susan Hoekstra emailed another monster northern pike tale from the lakefront.
"My two oldest sons, Justin (29) and Jonathan (25) Hoekstra, were fishing the shoreline at Burnham Harbor [in late October] looking for smallmouth [bass]," she emailed. "They were just getting ready to leave when my son, Jonathan, hooked up something big. They thought it was a lake trout but it rolled and they instantly knew it was a monster pike."
He was using 15-pound braided line to a 7-pound FC Sniper Fluorocarbon with a 1/4-ounce jig with a 4-inch Gary Yamamoto Fat Ika.
"They weren’t sure how they were going to land it before the line snapped," Susan emailed. "The fish fought but there was a concrete slab sticking out and provided just enough space to be able to reach down and gill the fish. What an amazing surprise!
"Jon has been an avid fisherman from the time he was a toddler. He would throw practice slugs while he still learning to talk. To catch this monster along the lakeshore with the Bears stadium and the city as a backdrop, was an extra special treat. Jon named it another `monster of the midway.' "
FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (the stories matter) 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).