``This past Saturday 1/31/09, myself, fishing partner and one of my union brothers from Carpenter's L.U. #58 headed up to North Point Marina to see if we could catch one of those Great Lakes Pike I've read about for years.

``We had 3 tip ups set up with live minnows and 1 tip up with a 6-7" dead smelt fished off the bottom in about 10 FOW. About 4:00 P.M. this Pike decided to hit the dead smelt. She measured 37 1/4" long, had a 16 1/8" girth and weighed 11 1/4lbs. on my Rapala hand held scale. I hope you'll consider her for FOTW.

``Thanks, Don Schurr, Chicago

``P.S. I didn't measure it but the ice at North Point is so thick I recommend a power auger or big muscles.''

I couldn't resist asking some details from the 40-year-old from the Forest Glen neighborhood some questions and he added this bit of fishing history.

``I've been fishing the Chicagoland area since1985. Started off catching plump Yellow Bullheads off the Higgins Ave. bridge on the Des Plaines River.''

Plump pretty much describes Kachel's pike. He e-mailed these details with his photo:

``Jim Kachel from www.angling101.com wins the 2009 W.O.W Derby with a fat 39" monster Pike caught on a self developed dead bait rigging system.

``The bait used was a whole 15" Spanish Mackeral, and the giant Pike is a Bangs Lake record.''

Maybe pike aren't as forgotten as a Chicago-area fish as I think.

For details on WOW, go to www.icebenefit.com.

E-mail FOTW nominations to outdoordb@sbcglobal.net.