re: Man Sues IGFA Over $1M Prize

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"Arkansas Game and Fish had just told him (Brotherton) that if we wanted to have them witness the weight of that fish, we'd have to drive 30 miles to a little town called Summit, Arkansas, and meet them at Allen's Grocery," says Ply. "We called Game and Fish back three times, but they would not send someone out to witness the weight."

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Thus ensued an eight-hour goose chase all over Marion County with Game Warden Jodell Purdam and Ken Shirley, a district fisheries biologist. Every grocery store and butcher shop they went to had a scale that was either too small or not certified. Not even the post office was open.

Meanwhile, the potential world record fish was floating in an 80-gallon fiberglass tub in the back of Brotherton's truck bed, regurgitating other little fish it had eaten earlier. When Ply, usually a cordial gentleman, lost his patience and asked how Arkansas Game and Fish could be so unprepared, they simply admitted that they never thought such a thing would happen.

"My own Arkansas Game and Fish failed me that day after eight hours of driving around," Ply said.

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By the time the men got the fish on a certified scale, it had spit up so much shad that the weight was down to 58 pounds, 3 ounces. Although Ken Shirley came out to 125 Marina the next day to certify Farris Brotherton's scale, which passed all necessary tests, and despite all the witness statements collected by Chief of the Arkansa’s Game and Fish's Fisheries Division, this was not enough to satisfy Director Lauren Hitchcock. Hitchcock wrote to Ply, "I am notifying you of my final decision in this matter: the Fisheries Division Chief and I cannot certify your striped bass as a new state record".

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