15.2-Pound Largemouth Bass Catch Should Shatter Tennessee State Record
Bob McNally 02.22.17
Pending official verification by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, angler Gabe Keen broke a legendary record that has been etched in Tennessee fishing history for more than 60 years. He captured a largemouth bass larger than any other ever in the Volunteer State on Lake Chickamauga.
The huge largemouth weighed 15.2 pounds on certified scales, breaking the previous record set by James “Logue” Barnett on Oct. 17, 1954. That bass weighed 14.5 pounds, caught from Sugar Creek in Lawrance County.
“I didn’t realize how big the fish was until I got it in the boat and weighed on my scales. When I saw 15 lbs. 3 ozs. on my scales, I started shaking all over and that’s when I knew I had just caught the potential state record bass,” said Keen
“Chickamauga Lake is kind of the perfect storm right now,” says state fisheries biologist Mike Jolley. “The aquatic vegetation has done well, and there’s a good forage base. It’s a rich environment right now and there’s no doubt that the current TWRA stocking program levels out some poor year classes,
“With the [bass] weights we’ve been seeing come from the lake a lot of people felt it was just a matter of time. There is no way to know for sure until we run a DNA analysis, but I would bet this fish will be a cross between one of the [stocked] Florida largemouth bass and a native northern largemouth.”
