The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency announced Tuesday that its standing state-record largemouth bass had officially been replaced with one caught late this winter. The new record, caught by Darren Nunley on Feb. 28, weighs 15 pounds 7.5 ounces and taped out at 27 7/8 inches long. It replaces a record that stood for 11 years.
TWRA announced the record following the conclusion of genetic testing on May 9 to confirm the species. Nunley’s bass tops the previous record largemouth caught in 2015, which weighed 15 pounds 3 ounces, and was caught on Chickamauga Reservoir.
Long-time bass guide and former tournament angler Hensley Powell was fishing Tennessee’s Nickajack Lake on the day his buddy Darren Nunley caught the fish. The two men had launched Powell’s boat early and motored to a shallow grass bed where Powell had helped a few customers catch a pair of 8-pound bass the day before.
“I gave Darren a Z-Man JackHammer Chatterbait to tie on that morning,” Powell told Outdoor Life in March. “It was a half-ounce, colored green-pumpkin with a Hog Farmer Spunk Shad plastic trailer on the lure.”
The buddies fished for about an hour. Then, around 8:30 a.m., Nunley cast a plug.
“He was just swimming the lure along and had a strike,” said Powell, who is 49 and lives in Whitwell. “I thought he was hung on grass when his rod bowed and he started cranking … I saw it boil the surface. It never jumped, but when it turned sideways, I told Darren that was a good one.”
The bass fought hard, but soon Nunley had the bass close enough to the boat for Powell to net it.
“I told him, ‘Now that’s a fish.’ Darren was shocked when he saw how big it was.”
The veteran guide knew immediately the fish was a potential Tennessee record. He called someone at TWRA, who instructed him on what to do and where to take the bass for an official certified weight. The anglers put the oversize bass in the live well and ran back to the boat ramp. After three weighings, they got a final weight of 15 pounds and 7.5 ounces.
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“Darren … doesn’t get to fish as much as he’d like to,” Powell says. “God sent him that fish.”
Bob McNally contributed reporting.