Ken Kuhnle caught and released a 33-inch freshwater drum Wednesday while fishing for wipers and white bass at Clinton Lake. He caught it in 10 feet of water on a chrome Flicker Shad near the cooling treatment for the power plant. The water was 85 degrees.
A monster drum (sometimes called drum by anglers) is not surprising at Clinton, where Johnathan Inman caught the Illinois record (38 pounds, 4 ounces) on May 24, 2018. Click here for details on Inman’s record.
Clinton is a cooling lake north of Decatur and west of Champaign. It is a favorite of some Chicago-area anglers because of its warm water and variety of big fish.
FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (the stories matter) around Chicago fishing, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times.
To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), X (@BowmanOutside), Instagram (@BowmanOutside) or Bluesky (@BowmanOutside.bsky.social).