Could the Chicago River be having a run of white bass?
Dan Renkosiak holds his PB smallmouth bass, caught on the Chicago River downtown.
Provided
Dan Renkosiak earns Fish of the Week for an apparent white bass run on the Chicago River and a personal-best smallmouth bass caught Friday on the Chicago River downtown.
"My son was fishing the main branch of the river today," his dad (WindyCity Weather and News) messaged on X. "Caught his personal best smallie in the river then found the white bass by a discharge pipe [downtown]. He says he landed about 70 of them."
White bass are sporadic catches on the river, a run is something extra.
His dad added, "He loves taking his kayak down there. Said he had a small cheering gallery on the bridge."
Cheering onlookers from bridges is one of the great joys of fishing downtown.
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).