http://www.wjbdradio.com/?f=news_single&id=21578
Somebody needs to tell these people about Darin's fish, which puts this one to shame. I guess this is the rod and reel record for Illinois. But it might not even be that. I don't know how many times I have seen articles on new state and even world record bighead carp of sizes that don't come close to a record of any kind. Nevertheless, I'd like to get aging structures off that fish.
By the way, currently, the largest bighead carp that I know of was apparently 174 pounds, caught in Hungary. But they didn't apply for any kind of record book or take it to be certified as to species. So that record will sit in some kind of limbo forever. I have seen a couple pictures, though, and the weight and girth reported make absolute sense, so I think it was real.