Saving grace of a big lake trout: Lakers save the day when blanked on smallmouth bass in downtown Chicago

Tim Prokop and his son Cameron had their day of fishing smallmouth bass on Saturday saved by lake trout, especially the big one earning Fish of the Week honors caught by Cameron.

Tim Prokop nominated his son Cameron for FOTW for a surprise lake trout caught downtown on Saturday.

“We [were] hoping for a December smallmouth but no luck,” Prokop messaged. “Seeing him battle the lake trout made up for no smallmouth.”

Prokop also caught a lake trout, but smaller.

The coming near shore of lake trout around Chicago in winter has become more noticed by anglers in the recent years. And, as long as launches remain ice-free, they can be caught.

Here’s Tim with his lake trout.

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (the stories matter, as this one shows) around Chicago fishing, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times. The online posting here at chicago.suntimes.com/outdoors goes up at varied days of the week, depending on what is going on the wide world of the outdoors.

To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or Instagram (@BowmanOutside).