WEIGHS AND MEANS
Johnathan Inman had a long night’s journey into day to weigh his soontobe Illinois- record freshwater drum.
Just let me say, if you think we catch big drum from Lake Michigan, this one ( 38.25 pounds) will make you rethink that.
It was one of two Illinois- record fish that should be formalized soon.
Both fish illustrated the effort needed to get fish weighed on a certified scale in recent years.
Inman caught his drum while catfishing early Thursday on Clinton Lake. He first tried to weigh it at the Toohill Seed & Beef Service meat market in Clinton. Then at R. P. Lumber, but its scale only went to 30 pounds. Conservation Police Sgt. John
Williamson, who also witnessed the weighing, suggested Heinkel’sMeat Packing in Decatur, where it weighed 38.25 pounds. Joe Rinella caught the current drum record ( 35 pounds) from DuQuoin City Lake in 1960.
On Friday, biologist Mike Garthaus examined the fish, and Inman’s drum will be the state record when the paperwork is completed.
Garthaus also noted, ‘‘ We are getting more IDNR- certified scales. There’s only one per region right now. Clinton Lake has a scale now, and it will be certified in October. That’s when our annual inspections are due, and new scales will be done then. It’s a hassle finding a place, but it’s not impossible. I was lucky that Sgt. Williamson did the work finding a scale and witnessing the weighing.’’
May is by far the busiest month for Illinois fish records, 14 as of this year. There should be two more for May, pending the paperwork on Inman’s drum and the final determination of whether a record is a redear or redear hybrid.
The redear was caught May 19 from a lake in the Goose Lake Association. It was brought into Smith’s Taxidermy in Joliet. ‘‘ It is a big fish, no joke,’’ said Jamie
Giltner of Giltner’s Taxidermy, operating from Smith’s. ‘‘ I have never seen one so big.’’
As she remembered it, it was 14 ½ inches with a girth of 14 ¼ inches. They were able to get it weighed on the certified scale at Miller’s Old- Fashioned Butcher Shop in Plainfield. At over 3 pounds, it would smash the current redear record ( 2- 12.3) caught by Mike DeMattei on Sept. 7, 1985, from the Marion Country Club lake.
‘‘ I was shocked,’’ Giltner said. ‘‘ This thing is massive. I have never seen one this big, and I have been bluegill fishing all my life.’’
The question is whether it’s a pure redear or a hybrid.
‘‘ Centrarchidae [ sunfishes] are prone to hybridize,’’ biologist Rob Miller said.
So he took a sample of the fish’s tissue Tuesday, then planned to run it to the Illinois Natural History Survey lab for DNA testing. Big fish stories are at the DNA level.
The Chicago Park District has pulled its proposed inflatable water park by Montrose Beach.
It was odd, to say the least, in the first place to consider such a project by the premier birding and fishing spots in Chicago.
After two months, the Cubs remind me of theMarch 1 opener at the Braidwood launch and boaters who forget to put their plugs in.