Baldwin yields monster flathead

A bass fishing trip to Baldwin Lake produced an unexpected whopper for Mike Hoercher.

Fishing at Baldwin Lake on May 29, Hoercher hooked into a 56-pound flathead.

“I really don’t fish for them,” said Hoercher, a 54-year-old Mascoutah resident who works for Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base. “When I go fishing, it’s for bass.”

Click here to read more about his big fish.

“It was strictly luck, an accident,” Hoercher told Rod Kloeckner of the Belleville News-Democrat. “I was fishing for bass, and I foul-hooked the thing in its dorsal fin. There was no skill involved. I just let him pull me around the lake until he wore out.”