Story from Illinois Outdoors:
Harper Walleye Reinstated as World Record!
Don Dziedzina on 05.24.10 at 9:46 AM |
This press release from the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame just came in….
On Monday, May 17, 2010, after careful review of newly discovered evidence supporting the validity of the 25 pound even 1960 walleye catch made by Mabry Harper on Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee, the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame has voted to officially reinstate the Harper walleye as the all tackle world record walleye.
With more than 3000 world record entries covering 125 species of fresh water fish in our record book, we chose to conduct our own internal review of our records over the past several years. This audit was completed in order to assure our listings are as fair and accurate as possible. During this time, several records have either been re-categorized or removed, based upon their true ranking in their respective divisions.
When it came to the walleye record, we considered this issue especially important to revisit. In 1996, we removed the long standing Harper walleye from our record listing. This decision was based upon a report which claimed that Harper’s walleye couldn’t have measured as long as claimed. The thrust of this report was a comparison of the length of his fish to an assumed size of Harper’s hands. The size of Mr. Harper’s hands were only assumed, but not actually known.
Once we chose to more deeply investigate the Harper walleye, we came into contact with the Trousdale County, Tennessee Historical Society whom supplied us with an impressive amount of additional information supporting the fish. We had not been privy to this information previously. Once we delved through this new documentation, we realized it not only greatly supported the Harper walleye’s validity, but it also disproved the theory which led to the walleye’s removal in 1996.
Among the additional evidence which has been discovered supporting Harper’s 25 pound world record walleye are two quality photographs (attached) of Harper’s wife holding the fish; a photograph of the walleye’s head (after it had been cleaned) with a ruler on top of it; a 1960 affidavit from a Tennessee game warden (James Spurling) attesting he had personally checked the scale on which the walleye was weighed and an additional affidavit from Spurling attesting he had also witnessed the re-weighing of the walleye and that he personally measured the fish to be 41 inches in length. There are even scale samples preserved from the Harper walleye as presented by the Tennessee historical society.
Field & Stream magazine was the original record keeping organization to declare the Harper walleye an all tackle world record. The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) also lists the Harper fish as their all tackle world record walleye.
A more detailed explanation of the Harper walleye reinstatement will soon be featured on our website at http://www.Freshwater-Fishing.org.
-J.
