Time for a Fish Fry

Story by Marian Lambrecht
Photos by Dan Bochnovic

The perch are running in the Calumet River. At Crowley’s Yacht Yard Lakeside, employees are catching their share along with the rest of the locals.

Theric Marion, Crowley’s travelift operator, caught the limit of 15 in an hour on Tuesday afternoon, a decent average compared to other catches.

“I caught six or seven in the last hour,” said Jim McInnes, a retired fireman from the South Side. On Tuesday morning Jim was using a crappy rig with live minnows, which was the bait of choice. Most of the perch caught from the bridge were 8-10 inches, no jumbos were reported.



All day Tuesday and Wednesday no less than 25 fishermen and women crowded the 95th Street bridge which borders Crowley’s Yacht Yard. Cars lined the curbs leading up to the bridge and passersby wanted to know how the catch was.

“[The perch] are spawning and the river temperature is warmer than the lake right now,” observed Tom Butkovich of Calumet Park. “On a nice day like this it’s hard to find a place to fish because the fish are biting and everyone’s out.”


Finding a fishing spot will get harder after April 1 according to Lois Varela, the drawbridge operator. He says that’s when the busy season for ships and freighters begins. Then the bridge goes up more frequently and the perch catchers will have to find another platform to use.

Some trivia: John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd jumped the 95th Street bridge in their car in the 1980 hit movie “The Blues Brothers.”