Edit 12:25 DNR Biologist has confirmed the fish.
One of the guys from our Facebook fishing group caught an officially weighed 7lb 3oz smallie on a ned rig around midnight. Do not listen to rumors floating everywhere. The fish is alive and kicking it back in a tank at Henry’s bait waiting for a DNR biologist to confirm. Option one is for Dale Bowman to video it’s live release. Option 2 since there’s a high probability of delayed mortality to have her taken in by the Shedd (she was caught by the Shedd, nice symbolism) or BPS/Cabelas. The guys have put in Herculean efforts to keep her alive and everything happened to fall into place with having big enough coolers, bubblers, de chlorination tablets, etc. the Illinois online fishing world is blowing up lol that’s what I know at 11:56am