ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996                 TAG: 9607160065
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above 

GUN BAGS THE BOAT THAT GOT AWAY

GAME WARDENS TRIED to snag it, then to drown it. When all else failed, four blasts from a 12-gauge did the trick.

A game warden popped off four shells from a 12-gauge shotgun to end the standoff.

His prey coughed and died.

Now if its owner can only get it into the shop to get it fixed.

A big, fast bass boat with a 200-horsepower engine held game wardens at bay for more than an hour Sunday night on Smith Mountain Lake. The boat's owner, David Phillips of Goodview, was whipping the boat across the lake near Hales Ford bridge when it hit choppy water and threw him out, said Lt. Karl Martin of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

The boat, which had just been filled up with 40 gallons of gas, sped on out of control - spinning, Martin said, in "erratic circles."

Shortly after the accident, another boater on the lake helped an uninjured Phillips to safety and called the Franklin County Sheriff's Office to report the runaway boat.

A few minutes later, several game wardens showed up in their patrol boats.

First, they tried to rig a rope between two buoys to grab the runaway's propeller and stop it.

The boat passed over the rope, but the propeller didn't catch, Martin said.

Then, a fire boat was summoned. The strategy: spray water into the boat to either sink it or short out the engine.

Plan B didn't work, either. The bass boat was going too fast, making it an almost impossible target.

Enter Martin, who had to agree to the final plan of action - the shotgun.

Martin talked with Game Wardens Steve Pike and Jimmy Blanks, and a new plan was devised: Pike would get a patrol boat as close to the bass boat as possible, and Blanks would blast away with the 12 gauge.

The stage was set: A man with the last name Blanks had to score a hit.

The runaway boat took the first three shots and kept going. The fourth did the job, a mortal wound to the ignition.

Martin, who has seen more than his share of the unusual on the lake over the years, has seen a runaway boat before, but only once - about nine years ago.

"It was about nine years ago," he said.

Phillips, the bass boat's owner, has been charged with reckless operation of a motorboat, Martin said.

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