Jamie Gotland took her son Bennett, 10, his brother Noah, 12, and a younger set of twins to Chicago for spring break on March 31. Bennett and Noah are dedicated fishermen, so when given the chance to fish during the city trip, they rushed to a Lake Michigan breakwall at Burnham Harbor on the city’s South Side.
“The boys wanted to catch coho salmon,” their dad, Rudie, told Wired2Fish. “I couldn’t be with them, so I told them to fish near the mouth of the harbor, where they were most likely to catch a salmon near open Lake Michigan water.”
That’s exactly what the boys did on that overcast 50-degree day. Bennett was using a stout bait-casting outfit and an orange Storm “Hot ‘n Tot” plug, a popular salmon lure.
“His first fish was a 2-pound smallmouth bass,” said Rudie, 46, sales manager at Basa’s Marine in nearby Bolingbrook, Illinois. “Not long after that, he hooked a much bigger and stronger fish. It never jumped, but it pulled a lot of line against the drag off his Lew’s bait-casting reel. The fish was so powerful that Bennett almost put the reel into free spool to keep from breaking his 25-pound test braided fishing line.”
Other anglers nearby stopped to watch the fifth-grader battle what turned out to be a bass of a lifetime. Fortunately, Bennett was using heavier-than-usual tackle because he was targeting salmon. Though the bass didn’t jump, it put up a great fight.
“The boys said the fish made strong, powerful, deep runs,” Rudie explained. “The fish was much stronger than the 5- and 6-pound smallmouths they’re used to catching from Lake Michigan these days.”
Bennett finally got the bass close to the 5-foot-high Burnham Harbor breakwall. Without a net, he hauled the bass up by the heavy line and flipped it onto shore.
They were all stunned and excited by the size of the huge smallmouth bass Bennett had landed. Bystanders marveled at the fish, as did his mom, Jamie, who was watching nearby while tending to the twins. Using a ruler, Bennett’s bass measured 24 inches long. It was then promptly released back into Lake Michigan after a few photos. The fish will not be an official Illinois record for smallmouths, since it wasn’t weighed on certified scales.
The current Illinois record for smallmouth bass is 22.5 inches long and weighs 7 pounds, 3 ounces. It was caught by Joe Capilupo in 2019 at Lake Michigan’s Monroe Harbor, located just two miles north of where Bennett caught his bass, near the famed McCormick Place. Rudie believes his son’s huge smallmouth was a pre-spawn fish, based on where it was caught at the harbor mouth, the 50-degree lake temperature, and the plump size of the fish.
“We used a mathematical formula from the internet to estimate the weight of Bennett’s bass, based on its 24-inch length,” Rudie said. “The formula said it weighed 8.43 pounds. We’ll never know the fish’s exact weight, but I know it was bigger than the current Illinois record. I’d estimate it at in the high 7-pound to low 8-pound range.”
Bennett and Noah continued fishing that day, landing about 10 smallmouths. They also returned to Burnham Harbor the next day and had another successful outing with chunky, aggressive pre-spawn smallmouths weighing up to 5 pounds and more. Everything was caught by casting from shore.
“The bass fishing along the Chicago lakefront has gotten really good in recent years,” Rudie explained. “The water is very clear, and there’s lots of baitfish for bass to grow big quickly. Goby minnows are everywhere, and bass love them.”
Rudie said if he had been with Bennett that day, he would have tried to keep the bass alive in a water bucket and aerator until it could be officially weighed and certified as the state record smallmouth. Illinois doesn’t have catch-and-release fish records. But Bennett will always have the memory of catching a record-size smallmouth and the satisfaction of releasing the trophy fish back into Lake Michigan.
“I’m so very proud of him,” Rudie said. “We may have a replica mount made of his outstanding bass so he can enjoy that fishing memory forever.”
