Joe Capilupo with his Illinois-record smallmouth bass of 7 pounds, 3 ounces at the holding tank at Henry’s Sports and Bait. Dale Bowman
Try 7 pounds, 3 ounces. His smallmouth smashed the longest-standing significant fish record in Illinois.
Mark Samp caught the previous Illinois-record smallmouth (6 pounds, 7 ounces) on March 26, 1985, from a Fulton County strip pit.
“It even jumped out of the water,’’ Cooke said. “I heard a splash and was going to help net it, but he did it himself.’’
It came on a Z-man Ned rig (California craw). “It is the go-to, swear-by, never-fails bait,’’ Pitelka said.
Capilupo was using a St. Croix Mojo Bass Casting rod with a Daiwa Legalis reel with 14-pound Sufix monofilament.
Earlier in the day, they were kayak-fishing at Busse Woods.
“I lost my rod in the water, and Jonny jigged it up,’’ Capilupo said.
Once they weighed it on hand-held scales between 7-5 and 7-1, enough to smash Samp’s record, they had a quandary...
Full story and more pix at Sun Times: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/10/15 ... 985-record
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