Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 23, 1994 TAG: 9405230098
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Six pounds, 5 ounces!
In the vernacular of a fisherman, ``It's a lunker.''
Like most fish stories, this one grew with the telling for authors Robert E. Jenkins and Noel M. Burkhead.
``We originally thought we would finish in two years, beginning in 1983,'' said Jenkins, 54, a biology professor at Roanoke College. ``The typed script would be 500 pages. The typed script ended up being about 2,500 pages. It took 10-plus years to get it between covers.''
The authors and their associates traveled to every drainage in the state, making more than 10,000 collections and documenting 210 species, some of them endangered. Five are yet to be given scientific names.
``We were discovering new things all of the time,'' said Jenkins, the lead author. ``Sometimes a three-page typewritten account would end up being six pages. I saw what the level of details was and I said, `I think we need to tell everything we know - almost - about each species. Particularly about the species which there is very little known.'''
The growing magnitude of the project became troublesome to some supporters. One publisher backed out. In the spring of 1989, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, a major financial backer (along with Roanoke College) told Jenkins he'd had enough time, that funding was ending and the manuscript was going to the printer even if someone else had to complete it.
The deadline was extended after Jenkins threatened to have his name deleted from the project, which had reached 2,100 typewritten pages.
``I never lost faith in this thing. There were a lot of people on our backs to get this out earlier. All they had to do was look over our shoulders to know [how hard we were working]. If I had had a punch clock they would have seen the incredible hours that were going into it.''
The book was dedicated to Jack Hoffman, the retired fish chief of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, who Jenkins said supported the project from day one.
``I learned a lot about myself when doing this book,'' Jenkins said. ``I either do things all the way or I don't do them at all.''
A world-class marathon runner, Jenkins gave up competition when the book was started in 1983. The year before, he was No. 1 in national rankings in the over-40 age category.
``I just spent massive amounts of time in the office,'' Jenkins said.
During the flood of '85, when Jenkins and Burkhead watched water flowing in the front door and out the back of Jenkins' house, Jenkins said, ``We can't do anything else; we might as well work on the book.''
That kind of zeal resulted in the most exhaustive documentation of freshwater fish in Virginia, but Jenkins said it also was tough on his family life.
One observer described Jenkins as going from a nerdlike character who didn't own an FM radio to a ponytail-wearing fan of the Pink Floyd rock group.
``I think I really got into Pink Floyd at a time when I was working with an editor and we were tooth and nail at each other quite a bit. I never lost focus on this thing. Neither did Noel."
Like Jenkins, Burkhead is an alumnus of Roanoke College. He currently is with the National Biological Survey in Florida. William Haxo, another contributor, began work on the project as a student at Roanoke College and assisted in field research following graduation.
All three were avid fly fishermen, who sometimes collected species with a fly rather than a net. A mobile photo lab was carried to get pictures of fish in their spawning brilliance.
The $85 book is expected to be most attractive to fisheries scientists, biologists and advanced students, Jenkins said.
``This is not a book on how to catch fish,'' he said, ``but for fishermen who want to know what is in their streams and lakes and want to know the inner-relationships or just want to tell what they caught, the book is for them, too.''
The authors lightened otherwise scientific systematics with a remarks section, where the spawning Saffron shiner is described as "a fiery sport in a stream,'' and the long-snouted paddlefish is called a piscine Pinocchio.
by CNB