Fraud of a Muskie Angler

[PlatinumHooks]

World Record Muskie Under Investigation

HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) - The legend of fishing great Louis Spray, who in 1949 caught a muskellunge that the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame here honors as the world's largest, is under attack, big time.

Louis Spray, shown with debunked FWFHF World Record Muskellunge {picture below} (courtesy of World Record Muskie Alliance / Special to FOXSports.com)

A group of fishermen based in Illinois wants Spray's fish added to the list of muskie crimes of the century. The fishermen say the muskie - listed at 69 pounds, 11 ounces - couldn't have weighed that much, and say that Spray, who some call the Babe Ruth of muskie anglers, "perpetrated a fraud of historic proportions."

"We hope that at the end of this process, basically the brass ring of this sport is going to be untarnished once and for all," said Rich Delaney, a teacher in Oak Park, Ill., and president of the World Record Muskie Alliance.

Spray's muskie - one of a whopping 4,000 records involving 125 different fish species recognized by the Hall of Fame - is highly coveted in northern Wisconsin, where fishing is as much a part of culture as snow in wintertime. Mounted trophy fish and other wildlife routinely decorate homes, taverns and restaurants.

Delaney acknowledges the area is "probably loath" to see an attack on Spray's muskie.

"You might even compare it to a story like Paul Bunyan and Babe, the blue ox. It's somewhere between fact and legend," the English and social studies teacher said.

In a 93-page report submitted to the Hall of Fame board, Delaney's group argues that Spray's muskie is significantly smaller than he claimed. The report makes the case that Spray was an "incredible cheat" who figured out a way during lean economic times to turn the large fish he caught into "cold, hard cash."

"It is almost comical to note that Spray even lied in claiming three record muskies on his tombstone," the report says. "At the time of his death, Spray was credited with only two."

Emmett Brown, executive director of the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, said the group's protest of the record will be reviewed in the next few weeks.

"If the facts show indisputably that there was a fraud committed here, we will acknowledge it," he said. "But it has to be proven."

Spray's nephew, Charlie Ross, a 54-year-old muskie fishing guide and convenience store owner in Rhinelander, said he was befuddled by the attack on his uncle's world record but has heard critics before.

"I think a lot of it is just jealousy," Ross said, describing Spray as a fishing fanatic. "Everybody is trying to pick apart all these records that are out there. It is a free country, you can do what you want to do, I guess. A fish is a fish, right?"

John Dettloff, a resort owner in Hayward, is a member of the Hall of Fame board that will review the fish protest - and also the author of a book about Spray.


A giant muskie replica, which, as you can see, is a bit bigger than the 69-pounder in question, adorns the grounds of the National Fishing Hall of Fame. (National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame / Special to FOXSports.com)


"There always has been a few doubters of his fish and there always will be," Dettloff said. "There is a lot of jealousy in the sport of muskie fishing. I can guarantee you that."

If Spray's muskie is disqualified, a 67 1/2-pounder caught in July 1949 by Cal Johnson, a one-time outdoors writer in Minneapolis, would become the record.

The World Record Muskie Alliance hired a Canadian company to analyze photographs of Spray's muskie - the mount of it was destroyed in a fire in 1959. The study, which compared Spray's known height and the fish's reported 63 1/2-inch length, concluded the fish weighed no more than about 55 pounds, suggesting Spray filled it with something, perhaps ice or sand, before it was weighed.

"This science gets used in courts of law," Delaney said.

A replica of Spray's muskie is prominently displayed at the museum in the "Louie and Inez Spray Memorial Room." The shirt, pants and shoes Spray wore the day he hauled the lunker out of the Chippewa Flowage fill one display.

Another features a book he wrote about catching big muskies, along with some of his rods and reels. An array of black-and-white pictures of Spray and his fish cover one wall.

The World Record Muskie Alliance, formed two years ago, contends that Spray - who was 84 and forced to use a wheelchair because of arthritis when he committed suicide in Arizona in 1984 - even convinced a taxidermist to make the fish longer to perpetuate the hoax.

Spray's fish was the world record muskie from 1949 to 1957, when a muskie caught by Art Lawton of New York in the St. Lawrence River got the honor. Spray's fish got the title back in 1994 when an investigation by Dettloff, now president of the Hall of Fame board, proved the size of Lawton's fish was exaggerated.

"He had some evidence that showed two different pictures of the fish, one being a 49-pounder and one being a 69-pounder," Brown said. "Through some markers, they were unmistakably the same fish."

Delaney says many muskie fishermen feel the museum is partial to Hayward records, and that Dettloff failed to give Spray's fish the same scrutiny as others when it regained its standing as the world record.

Dettloff denies that accusation. Before Spray's fish was destroyed by fire, he said, tens of thousands of people saw it.

"That fish was extremely scrutinized and looked at and scoped over by every muskie fisherman who was in awe of it and all that doubted it," he said.

Brown said there's no question that Spray was a self promoter, a one-time bootlegger, an entrepreneur and a businessman trying to scratch out a living during tough times in northern Wisconsin.

"Does that make him a liar, a thief, a cheat, a fraud? I don't think so," Brown said. "He is part of the fabric of what we are in Wisconsin."

Inside the museum, a 1957 picture shows Spray in the front of a bar he owned, offering $2,500 for any angler breaking his record catch. "The Lord was with me when I caught this fish, so for further information contact him," reads an inscription with the picture.

"Who knows what he meant," Brown said, laughing. "Isn't he kind of deferring all comments to the Big Guy?"

[WreckinBall]

C'mon. If that guy is 7'6", it could weigh 69 lbs.....

[PlatinumHooks]

Yeah. It looks more like in the 40lb range to me.