Tennessee has a new biggest bass, and it came on a lure sitting in tackle boxes all over the country. On May 11 the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency certified a 15-pound, 7.5-ounce largemouth caught by Darren Nunley of Whitwell as the heaviest ever recorded in the state.
The fish came out of Nickajack Reservoir, a 10,370-acre Tennessee River lake near Chattanooga, on February 28. Nunley was fishing with guide Hensley Powell around 8 in the morning, slow-rolling a half-ounce green pumpkin JackHammer ChatterBait over emerging weed on 17-pound fluorocarbon. The bite came in a pocket where the bottom contour changed — a classic late-winter staging spot for pre-spawn giants.
Measured at 27 and 7/8 inches, the bass beat the previous Tennessee benchmark of 15 pounds, 3 ounces, set by Gabe Keen on nearby Chickamauga Lake in 2015. That record had held for 11 years.
"I think every fisherman dreams about catching the biggest bass in the lake," Nunley told Wired2Fish. "But most of the time, that doesn't happen."
The certification process was deliberate rather than dramatic. The fish was weighed on a certified scale at a Whitwell grocery store, and TWRA had a fin clip genetically tested before finalising the result on May 9. Only then did Nunley's catch become official.
What makes the record notable beyond the numbers is where it came from. The Tennessee River chain — Nickajack, Chickamauga and their neighbours — has produced a steady run of double-digit largemouth over the past decade, fuelled by fertile water and strong forage. Anglers now travel to the region specifically chasing fish in this class, and a fresh state record only sharpens that reputation.
For Nunley, the headline is simpler. A guided winter morning, an ordinary cast and a common bladed jig delivered the fish of a lifetime — proof that a record-class largemouth can still turn up for anyone willing to put in the cold-weather hours.