Richard Sanders has been a Wildlife and Parks fisheries biologist for more than two decades, and he never had seen anything like it.

“Normally, the wipers I encounter are in the four- to nine-pound range,” said Sanders, who lives in Lawrence, “but they do have the capability to go over 20 pounds.”

Chris Wilcox, who lives in Eudora, caught a 22.39-pound wiper July 9 at the Perry Lake outlet. The existing state record is 22 pounds for a wiper caught in 1993 at Pomona Lake.

The only question is whether the Wilcox fish really is a wiper – a hybrid combination of a white bass and a striped bass – or a pure striper. Tissue samples must be tested to confirm the species.

“On these large wipers and stripers, sometimes there’s such a blend of characteristics it’s difficult to tell,” Sanders said. “This fish appears to be a wiper, but it has some striper characteristics.”

At just over 31 inches and with a 251â2-inch girth, the thickness makes Wilcox’s fish more like a wiper than a striper, but only a tissue test will prove it.

“I’m trying to get a lab lined up now,” Sanders said. “Right now, we’re in limbo.”

Striped bass can weigh up to 50 pounds, so if the test shows Wilcox’s fish is really a striper, the state wiper record would remain intact.

Meanwhile, the potential record fish is in a freezer at the home of Wilcox’s grandparents in Eudora. Eventually, Wilcox plans to have it mounted.

Wilcox, 20, grew up in Perry and has fished at Perry Lake ever since he was old enough to wet a line. He works three 12-hour shifts at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center in Ottawa, so he has plenty of time to go fishing.

Chris Wilcox, a 20-year-old Eudora resident, hefts the possible state record wiper he caught using a jig earlier this month at the Perry Lake Outlet. Lab testing must be done to confirm that the fish is indeed a wiper before it can be certified as a state record.

Earlier this month, he was at the Perry Lake outlet with his grandfather, an uncle and a cousin.

“I’m out there pretty much every Monday and Friday night,” Wilcox said. “We were trying for catfish, using jigs, and I didn’t know what I had. At first, I thought it was a white bass.”

A few minutes later, Wilcox realized it was a wiper.

“I was shocked,” he said, “because I didn’t even know we had them in there.”

Wildlife and Parks fisheries officials stock wipers in several reservoirs around the state, but Perry Lake isn’t one of them.

“There are a number of locations it could have come from,” Sanders said. “My guess is it probably came here from Milford (near Junction City).”

Wilcox caught the fish on a 10-pound-test line, and, according to the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, it would be a world record for 10-pound line, beating an Oklahoma wiper caught in 1995 by about three ounces.

The world-record wiper weighed 27 pounds, five ounces and was caught in Arkansas in 1997.

In several return trips to the outlet at Perry Lake, Wilcox has caught some smaller wipers, but another wiper whopper isn’t his current fishing focus.

“Flatheads are spawning,” he said, “and I’m trying to get a big one using a rod and reel.”