If everyone fished in "legal" and "ethical" ways, then nobody would need a fishing license, but the fact is that they don't.

Instead, the government needs to hire people to police waterways making sure that fishing is done in a legal manner - making sure that they only keep the larger fish (so smaller ones are allowed to grow and breed), making sure that they limited themselves to the legal catch quanitity (to keep from fishing out the area), and to make sure that the methods used to catch fish are legal (so some crazed person doesn't sweep the water clean of useable fish).

When folks were sitting around trying to figure out who would pay for the fish & wildlife police that were needed to protect ... well ... fish & wildlife, they got REAL smart and decided to have people who fish and hunt pay for the protection of their targeted species (certainly not intending anything negative toward fishers and hunters), though I suspect the costs are also subsidized by general taxes.

I'm pretty sure that in Illinois fishing licenses are not required on wholly owned lakes ... I could be wrong though.

Ken K.