They came.
And lined the entire length and width of Northerly Island Saturday.
As has become tradition in late June, for a perch derby.
The fifth annual Northerly Island perch derby was Saturday, keeping up the tradition. A perch derby was the first public event after the old airport was X'd out.
And ``Jumbo Jimmy'' Baczek caught. Hey, not all can be jumbo jumbos.
``Jumbo Jimmy'' was fishing whole soft shells, cast far out into the current area at the mouth of Burnham. And catching. I think I was interviewing him around 7 a.m. and he already had his limit of quality keepers or nearly did.
He easily won both big perch (1.2 pounds) and big bag (15 perch weighing 12.65 pounds). That my friends was a fine-looking bag of perch.
Not that the Garfield Ridge man was alone.
Joseph Marcanio came in from Oak Forest and slow jigged minnows to finish second with a nice bag.
In third was the winner of the first perch derby, Chong Xiong, who anchored his catch with a fine 1.05-pound jumbo. The Lincoln Square tried fishing Shad Raps, the technique that won for him the first year, but he said only Paddle Bugs seemed to work Saturday.
That's Joseph, ``Jumbo Jimmy'' and Chong, all medaled up.
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