Jacob Branham (left) and John Bowling Jr. (right)
There are monsters in Lake Springfield. Just ask John
Bowling Jr. of Springfield and Jacob Branham of Chatham. On April 22, they pulled
a 21.3-pound catfish out of the lake to win the 6th Annual John
Montgomery Memorial Catfish Tournament held by the Downtown Rotary Club of
Springfield. Bowling and Branham won the tournament last year, too. The contest
provides grants to local literacy programs like Fishes and Loaves or
Springfield Public Schools’ Early Learning Center. And lest you worry that all
of the good catfish are gone after last week’s tournament, every fish caught was
weighed and released back into the lake in hopes that they’ll grow even bigger
for next year. Plus, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources rates the “catfishing”
in Lake Springfield as excellent. The largest blue catfish ever pulled from the
lake was an astonishing 81 pounds, and the largest flathead catfish was 60
pounds, DNR says. Maybe we’ll keep our feet on the dock after all. For more
information on the John Montgomery Memorial Catfish Tournament, visit http://rotaryfishing.causevox.com.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2015.
