The latest in the saga of the 6-pound, 10-ounce potential record smallmouth bass caught from a local river by John Kuta cranks the "fish story" up another notch.
I was clearing messages fairly late last Tuesday when this message stopped me in my tracks.
We'll just call him Chuck from a little town south of here.
"That smallmouth bass you wrote about?" I held my breath. "I caught that fish when it was 24½ inches long. Then, my son caught it when it was 25 inches. I'm looking at the picture. That's the same fish. No doubt about it. In fact, I can tell you exactly where he caught it ..."
• A few days later, Mike Kranzusch of Romeoville checked in with another incredible account.
"I fish on Pana Lake, about 14 miles west of Shelbyville," he related. "I had just caught some bass, that's what I fish for, when on my next cast my (worm) just stopped. I was alone and only had my small bass net and this fish took me all over."
Kranzusch finally slid the little net under it and rolled it into the boat.
"It was the biggest fish I'd ever caught," he said. "I asked some people to snap some shots of it and I measured and weighed it and put it back in the water."
The near-40 inch channel catfish weighed more than 35 pounds. Taken on 8-pound test line, this fish would probably have bumped the current 35-incher caught from the Red River, Manitoba, on May 19, 2000
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/sports/600229,4_2_JO12_OUTDOORS_S1.article
www.fishlakemanitobanarrows.com