San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Erin Hallissy reports on the case of angler James Storm. Excerpt:
James Storm says he wasn’t telling any tall tales when he reeled in a 40.65-pound striped bass — the largest catch at the Rio Vista Bass Festival last weekend.
But Storm failed a lie-detector test — the first used in the 54-year history of the popular delta fishing derby — and the title was stripped from him, along with the top prize, a fishing boat.
Now, Storm has hooked a lawyer who is casting about for a remedy to restore his reputation as an upstanding fisherman.
“It’s upsetting, especially when you’re not a cheater or liar,” Storm said yesterday.
Rick Ring, a friend of Storm’s who witnessed him fighting to bring in the big fish in Montezuma Slough around 5 a.m. Friday morning, said he cannot believe that tournament officials questioned Storm’s integrity.
“I know what I saw and in my mind he won the derby and should have won the boat,” Ring said.
But Rio Vista Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Denise Rubiaco defended the tournament, which attracted more than 1,000 participants, and the lie-detector test.
“We wanted honesty and integrity in our events,” Rubiaco said. “We wanted to ensure there weren’t big fish tales going on.”
In 1999 and 2000, the tournament had kept a polygraph operator on standby in case they heard of whoppers that officials didn’t want to swallow hook, line and sinker. But with a $19,000 Klamath GTX fishing boat along with a 50-horsepower Mercury outboard and an E-Z Loader trailer at stake, officials decided that the winning fisherman would have to pass a polygraph.
“This year we decided to get really serious,” Rubiaco said. “With the value of the boat, we had decided in advance that we were going to use it no matter what.”
The Rio Vista Chamber of Commerce’s liability in this case may greatly outweigh the $19,000 cost of the fishing boat.