Mike Lynch nominated his cousin Bryan “Catfish” Konczak for catching a big flathead catfish last week at Braidwood Lake, the cooling lake in southwestern Will County that reopened March 1. It was big enough that Lynch’s first-grader, Ronan (off school because of parent-teacher conferences), helped hold it for photos.
“[Konczak] thought he was snagged until the fish started towing the boat,” Lynch emailed. “The flatheads are starting to take hold at Braidwood.”
In the fall 2023 electrofishing survey by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, 14 flatheads were collected, from 6.1 to 38.4 inches.
“Multiple sizes of fish were collected, indicating that natural reproduction is occurring,” ifishillinois.org noted. “Flathead catfish were originally stocked many years ago and have managed to hang on.”
Konczak caught his flathead on a Berkley Frittside. a bait that Berkley describes as “a key bait for tough conditions when fish are sluggish or heavily pressured.”
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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