Coming close to catching the Illinois-record coho

More and more 2024 looks like it will go down as the year of the big coho on southern Lake Michigan.

The latest indication came Saturday when a Lake County woman, who preferred anonymity, caught a 18.4-pound coho on Spendthrift Charters out of Waukegan.

As Scott Sekula messaged, "Fish of a lifetime."

He's not kidding.

"I never saw a coho in my lifetime that big," he messaged."[I've] been fishing Lake Michigan for 44 years."

It was caught down 57 feet, he messaged. Capt. Kyle Nied messaged that the "monster coho" came on a Metal chrome with a Howie white fly.

The Illinois coho record is one of the state's longest standing marks. Carry VandeVusse caught the 20-pound, 9-ounce Illinois-record coho on May 24, 1972 in Lake County waters.

While on big fish in southern Lake Michigan, for the record, Marge Landeen caught the Illinois-record Chinook on Aug. 7, 1976, also in Lake County. In the winter of 2021, Landeen's daughter Marlene reached out with details and an enchanting story about her late mother's very unexpected catch,

This year gives hints that both records could be challenged. Or maybe I am just hoping it happens.

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.

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