That's the second one the man from Westchester caught about midway down the north side of Navy Pier early Tuesday.

All I know is they are one of the weirder things in Chicago fishing.

That's about the same area where I know of or have seen people catch mudpuppies. And all of those catches have been right around Thanksgiving.

Which raises three questions for me.

1) Is there something on the north side of Navy Pier that attracts or holds mudpuppies?

2) Is there something about the water temperature around Thanksgiving on the lakefront that makes catching mudpuppies more common?

3) Or is it simply that Thanksgiving is when the number of fisherman at Navy Pier starts to build?

Just wondering

WOTW, a celebration of the wild things around Chicago outdoors, is a regular part of the Sun-Times outdoors page on Sundays. When there isn't a Mushroom of the Week or Buck of the Week: Unplugged.

E-mail nominations to straycasts@sbcglobal.net.