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Scientists hail smallmouth catch as sign of improved water quality in Illinois’ Cal-Sag Channel

Mike Portala, left, and Mike Ress with a 3.9-pound smallmouth bass they caught during an electrofishing survey on the Cal-Sag Channel near Blue Island. (Photo courtesy of MWRD)

A 3.9-pound smallmouth bass sampled by environmental research technicians in the Cal-Sag Channel may as well have been 15 pounds. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago sees it that way, and for good reason.
It is the largest smallmouth in more than 51 years of MWRD fish monitoring on the Chicago Area Waterway System.

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