Illinois
UJpdating sturgeon story by giving a sense of where they fit around Chicago and Illinois
I’m not sure whether finding a sturgeon or a body is rarer on Lake Michigan.
‘‘I could see a large object floating in the water with a white shirt approximately 300 to 400 yards south from me and in close proximity to the recovery of the first body,’’ Capt. Ernesto Amparan of Thin Blue Line Fishing emailed on noticing a surprise Saturday while setting up lines in 113 feet for a charter near the R4 buoy off the north suburbs.
Earlier Saturday, another charter had found a body believed to be the 41-year-old swimmer unaccounted for in ‘‘harsh swimming conditions’’ June 30 off Evanston.
A big dead sturgeon, originally mistaken for a body, found Saturday near the R4 buoy.
‘‘I called the Coast Guard to report my observation, just in case I couldn’t get all my lines out of the water in time before it continued to float away,’’ Amparan emailed. ‘‘As I got closer, the object was getting bigger. My customers all believed it was a person floating, but to our surprise it was an approximately 5-foot dead sturgeon. I have seen one in Lake Michigan before, and it was interesting to see a dead one floating around. My customers were relieved it wasn’t a body and were excited to see the sturgeon.’’
They should be. Lake sturgeon are very rare in the Chicago area.
The Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board lists lake sturgeon as endangered in the state. But a reintroduction was started late last year with the stocking of 4,600 young lake sturgeon from Jake Wolf Memorial Fish Hatchery into the Illinois River and its tributaries.
The most famous sturgeon in Chicago history is probably the one of 45 inches, weighing 20 pounds and 2 ounces, caught and released by Collier Moore on Feb. 28, 2000, from Wolf Lake. It had been tagged with Wisconsin tag 5-S-8012 on Aug. 11, 1994, on the Wolf River, about 105 miles upstream of Lake Winnebago. It probably arrived via Green Bay and Lake Michigan.
Of more recent vintage was the 40-inch lake sturgeon, which had a girth of 21 inches and weighed 17.5 pounds, that Tariq Khan caught and released on April 17, 2021, from the south side of Montrose Harbor. He was bottom-fishing for whitefish, lake trout or brown trout with night crawlers.
Wild things
In response to my note last week that I am seeing fewer fireflies than usual, William Paul replied: ‘‘Here in Grundy County, I’m noticing MORE fireflies than usual. It’s been a great year for them. I figured it was due to the early rain and warmth.’’
• I counted a personal-record 14 rabbits on my ramble Sunday morning with Lady. I keep waiting for coyotes to arrive and thin their ranks.
• Kate Fuentes sent more photos of the black red fox kit in Lockport, one of them with a regular red fox kit.
A red fox kit with a rare black fox kit in Lockport.
Stray cast
May the All-Star break be to Chicago baseball what a thunderstorm is to a fishless day
The Chicago Bears released a statement on Wednesday after Illinois legislators took a step forward with keeping the team in the state.
Shortly after the bill passed out of a House committee 15-5 and then was passed again by the full House, the Bears said the bill is not enough for them.
“We welcome the progress made on the House’s version of the mega project bill; however, additional amendments are necessary to make the Arlington Heights site feasible for our stadium project. We support Illinois leaders as they determine the path forward to making the essential changes to the mega project bill and aligning on infrastructure funding,” the team said in a statement.
The vote on Wednesday came after lawmakers spent weeks working to address concerns and criticism that the bill provided incentives to the team to leave Chicago and surrounding potential revenue shortfalls to area schools if the stadium is built in Arlington Heights.
Despite the team’s dissatisfaction, the megaprojects bill, which would allow the Bears to negotiate property tax payments directly with the Village of Arlington Heights, is headed now to the Senate.
A key piece of legislation designed to keep the Chicago Bears’ stadium project in Illinois is being weighed, and Rose Schmidt has details on what’s in it.
That said, the bill’s lead Senate sponsor State Sen. Bill Cunningham told NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern that legislators “feel no pressure to take a vote next week” when the Senate returns on Tuesday.
“We will work this bill like any other bill,” Cunningham said.
Though the team is not satisfied with the deal, it seems Illinois Governor Pritzker is.
“Governor Pritzker has been clear and consistent for years that the Bears should remain in Illinois, and that any legislation needs to protect taxpayers. Throughout the past few months, the Governor’s Office brought team leadership, local officials, and legislative partners to the table to craft a deal around public infrastructure improvements, property tax fairness, and affordability measures. Today is an important step, and the Governor’s Office looks forward to working with the Illinois General Assembly to advance a bill that reflects our shared priorities,” Pritzker’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
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