Many trades people, teachers, students, professors and retirees have contributed to Fish of the Week and the Midwest Fishing Report over the decades. Throw in the occasional alderman, doctor, attorney, television producer and radio personality and it’s quite the egalitarian mix.
Add a pediatric psychologist and a comedian.
Last Wednesday, DJ Rybski emailed about catching and releasing a big northern pike while fishing for coho with a blue and silver spoon at Montrose Harbor. I asked if he was the DJ Rybski and he replied, “I’m a stand up comic in Chicago and I grew up fishing the harbors.”
Also last Wednesday, Claudio Rivera caught and released largemouth bass at Northerly Island. Smallmouth bass tend to be more common there, but Rivera, a pediatric psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago Medicine, caught largemouth.
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).