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Fishing in Chicago (4 Photos)

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Spend any time along the lakefront or in any of the parks which have a large enough body of water in Chicago and you will see people fishing. Some just do it for sport (catch and release) while others eat what they catch. In 1970 then Mayor Richard J. Daley predicted that one day Loop workers will spend their lunch hours fishing in the Chicago River. At the time the river was a polluted mess. It has improved and many species of fish which had abandoned the river at the time have now returned. The five species which lived their when Daley was alive has increased to fifty-eight. Whether they are safe to eat or not is iffy.

Below are four photos of people fishing in Chicago. None of them are fishing in the Chicago River, however. I hope you enjoy them.

#1

Fisherman (2006-08-08 15-39-51a)

The photo was also taken at the Lincoln Park Lagoon in Chicago, Illinois although it was taken a little over two years later.

I also used my Pentax Optio 555 camera to take this photo. Then I used Luminar 2018 to apply the 'Moody Monochrome Conversion' preset with the following changes: lower the shadows and boost highlights and clarity.

© 2006 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved.

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#2

Fisherman on His Boat (2004-04-28 10-23-59c)

This photo was taken from the bridge over the Lincoln Park Lagoon at Fullerton Avenue in  Chicago, Illinois.

I used a Pentax Optio 555 camera to take the photo and Luminar 2018 to edit it. I used the Develop filter to lower the highlights, open up the shadows and raise the clarity. Then I used the Advanced Contrast filter to raise the contrast in the highlights and midtones and added the Accent-AI, Structure and Polarizing filters.

© 2004 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved.

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#4

Fisherman (2009-06-29 19-24-06a)

The last photo was taken at Montrose Harbor in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois.

I used a Panasonic DMC-FZ50 camera and converted it to black and white using Luminar 2018 and the Boss Tenor Vign preset from the Variations of Monochrome collection.

© 2009 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved.

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ChicagofishermenIllinoisLincoln ParkoutdoorsPeopleSports

Written by Gary J Sibio

15 Comments

  3. Those are great photos. Any way to assess the safety of eating the fish? I can’t imagine them being any worse than the Swai Fish from the Mekong River that Trader Joe’s sells nowadays.

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    • The fish are tested periodically. It used to be that the fish were not safe to eat but, about 5 or 10 years ago, that changed. The lake had an invasion of Zebra Mussels which clogged up pipes but also did a terrific job of filtering the pollutants out of the lake.

    • Thanks. If all you know about Chicago is what you see on TV, you’d think we spend our days dodging bullets. I’ve lived in my neighborhood for 26 years and we’ve only had one shooting.

      • The media likes to point out the negatives of the Windy City but hardly covers the greatness of the town that according to the late Frank Sinatra “Billy Sunday could not shut down.”

  7. Very cool shots Gary. The last one reminded me of Dustin. He absolutely loved fishing. I would take him and he would bait my hook for me! We fished with live bait in creeks and ponds.

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