In Sunday's Sun-Times column, I tried to put Rudy Steffan's story of his catch of a 44-inch common carp on May 8 in the context in recent history of sport fishing on southern Lake Michigan.
The Midlothian man launched from 95th, but his carp was caught and released in Indiana waters.
But it made me wonder what is the ruling if it had been caught in the reciprocal waters. Could it be both an Illinois and Indiana record?
So I asked Mike Conlin, current wildlife resources chief for Illinois but fisheries chief for decades before that. He said,
``We offer recognition awards for fish caught in Illinois waters only. Illinois folks fishing in reciprocal waters (eg. Indiana waters on Lake Michigan) who believe they have a fish worthy of note can submit such to Indiana. Reciprocity allows Illinois anglers to fish adjacent states waters with an Illinois license, it does not make such waters Illinois waters.''
So much for dual state records for smallmouth bass or yellow perch.
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