Virginia Dock Tales: Kepone, Mercury and Trout

Dock Tales are researched stories from the waters in these guides. They are written by BCRods from published sources. They are not Adam’s stories and they are not first-person fishing experiences. Each tale gets its own page only when we can source it from more than one reliable place; stories we cannot confirm stay out until we can.

Tales you can read now

• The River Closed in 1975: Kepone on the James. In December 1975 Virginia closed the James River to fishing after a plant in Hopewell was found to have poisoned the river with the pesticide Kepone. The commercial ban was lifted in 1988, and a consumption advisory remains. It is the reason the tidal James still carries a fish advisory, and it ties directly to the James River guide.

• How Cold Water Made a Trout River. Below Gathright Dam the Jackson River was too warm for trout until managers began releasing cold water from the lake in 1989. A stocking program followed, and then a river where trout reproduce on their own. The story belongs with the Jackson River guide.

• Mercury From a Factory Closed Decades Ago. Waste dumped at Waynesboro from 1929 to 1950 still shapes fish advisories on the South River and South Fork Shenandoah. See the Shenandoah guide.

• The New River and Its Giant Salamander. An old river that holds the protected eastern hellbender, which anglers should release if hooked. See the New River guide.

• The Pier at 15th Street: A Virginia Beach Landmark. A wooden pier that survived three storms before its 2024 closure. Its current status is unconfirmed.

• Four Islands Built From Mountain Granite. How the Bay Bridge-Tunnel islands became fish structure. See the bridge-tunnel guide.

• A 109-Pound Cobia at York Spit. A 2006 record catch from an anchored boat in the lower Bay.

• A Lake Built for Power, Filled by Stripers. Smith Mountain Lake’s history and its 2003 striper die-off. See the lake guide.

• The Lake That Hurricane Agnes Filled. Lake Anna filled in 18 months instead of three years. See the lake guide.

• Two Names for One Lake. Why Buggs Island Lake is also Kerr Reservoir. See the lake guide.

Several of these rest on a single source, and each page says so. Check the caveats at the bottom of a tale before you rely on a figure.

Virginia freshwater state records

DWR keeps freshwater state records by weight. The table below is a selection of the main list, which DWR showed as updated May 8, 2025 when we read it on November 1, 2026. DWR separately lists archery records, which we do not repeat. Records marked with an asterisk were caught before the state adopted new record rules in 1985. DWR shows a minimum qualifying weight for a few panfish with no entry to date, and we leave those out.

Species	Weight	Angler	Date	Where
Largemouth bass	16 lb 4 oz	Richard Tate	May 20, 1985	Connor Lake
Smallmouth bass	8 lb 1 oz	Donald S. Eaton Jr.	Mar 12, 2003	New River
Striped bass	53 lb 7 oz	James B. Davis	Mar 16, 2000	Leesville Reservoir
Hybrid striped bass	15 lb 13 oz	Don Jessie	Mar 16, 2016	Claytor Lake
Muskie (including tiger)	45 lb 8 oz	Shannon Hill	June 1, 2007	New River
Walleye	15 lb 15 oz	Anthony P. Duncan	Dec 15, 2000	New River
Walleye*	22 lb 8 oz	Roy G. Barrett	Aug 20, 1973	New River
Northern pike	31 lb 4 oz	George Wood	July 24, 1994	Motts Run Reservoir
Blue catfish	143 lb	Richard “Nick” Anderson	June 18, 2011	Buggs Island Lake
Flathead catfish	68 lb 12 oz	Jeffrey E. Dill	May 25, 2018	Lake Smith
Channel catfish	31 lb 8 oz	Sue Stanley	Oct 2, 1992	Rappahannock River
Rainbow trout	14 lb 12 oz	Grant Bentz	June 9, 2024	Spring Creek
Brown trout	14 lb 12 oz	Mike Perkins	May 24, 1990	South Fork Holston
Brown trout*	18 lb 11 oz	William W. Nease	June 22, 1979	Smith River
Brook trout	5 lb 15 oz	Thomas Garth	Mar 12, 2019	Cub Run
Black crappie	4 lb 10 oz	Justin Elliott	Apr 24, 1994	Private pond
Yellow perch	3 lb	George Mullins	Mar 8, 2010	Flannagan Reservoir

Where a species has two entries, the one without an asterisk is the record under the current rules and the asterisked one is the older, heavier fish.

Records change as new fish are entered, so check DWR’s state records page for the current list. VMRC keeps saltwater records through the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. Its page is a list of links to individual records, and we did not read them, so we do not reprint saltwater figures here.

Where these fish live

Several of the records come from waters we cover. The New River holds the smallmouth, muskie and walleye entries: see the New River guide. Buggs Island Lake holds the blue catfish record and is covered in its own guide. Claytor Lake, the source of the hybrid striper record, is on the New River system. For trout waters, start with the trout guide.

For the lakes side by side, read the Virginia lakes roundup.

Records belong to the people who caught the fish, and a few of the older ones come from before today’s rules.

Corrections

If you see something wrong in these tales or records, the corrections email is on our how we research page. We will check it against the source and fix the page.