
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 21, 1993                   TAG: 9306210315
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OFFICIALS SAY RECORD STRIPER WAS A FISH TALE

It made a great fishing story: Tim Waller out with his family on Leesville Lake on Easter Sunday, casting shrimp bait for catfish and hooking a 50-pound, 8-ounce striped bass. Doing it on 10-pound line and a Zebco 33 outfit that his 6-year old son had abandoned momentarily while getting a snack.

Now officials of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries say this wasn't a tale about a record fish that didn't get away. It was a story of a fish that probably wasn't there to begin with.

The 52-inch striper reportedly caught by Waller, who lives in Gretna, won't make the Virginia freshwater fish record book, because it has the chemical characteristics of a fish from saltwater, said M.C. Duval, a state fisheries biologist supervisor. Leesville is a freshwater lake immediately downstream from Smith Mountain Lake.

"We had to reject the fish on those grounds," Duval said.

For a time, it appeared the striper was a shoo-in for record status. It was nearly 6 pounds heavier than the current freshwater record, a 44-pound, 14-ounce Smith Mountain Lake fish landed July 7, 1992, by Gary Tomlin of Buena Vista.

A state game warden witnessed the weighing and even took pictures of Waller and his family that appeared in newspapers. "State record striper caught in Leesville," said one headline.

Then came a tip from someone who claimed Waller really had landed the striper in tidal water near Hopewell, where spawning, ocean-going stripers are protected by a closed season. Biologists began scrutinizing the fish's chemical makeup.

"We decided we'd better go ahead and make our checks in order not to compromise our state record system," said Duval.

A committee of eight biologists examined the test results and unanimously recommend that the record be denied.

If there is reasonable doubt about any aspect of a record candidate, it may be rejected, said Duval. "We are not claiming that Mr. Waller lied to the committee; what we find is that we have reasonable doubt."

State game wardens said they will decide this week whether to press charges against Waller.

"We take that [record] program seriously," said Capt. John Heslep.

All this is of little comfort to North Carolina angler David Snider, who landed a Smith Mountain striper 1 ounce heavier than the record shortly after word of Waller's fish was circulated. Snider, and his guide, Ken Dempsey, figuring their catch couldn't top Waller's, so they didn't follow record-verification procedures.

by CNB