Tennessee fisherman's monster largemouth bass is now the official state record

Tennessee has a new official largemouth bass record after wildlife officials certified a fisherman's massive catch. 

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency confirmed that Darren Nunley caught a 15-pound, 7.5-ounce largemouth bass in the Nickajack Reservoir, beating the previous 60-year record of 15 pounds and 3 ounces set in 2015.

The TWRA stated that the catch, which occurred in late February of this year, was made with a Z-Man jackhammer chatterbait lure and that Nunley used a Shimano reel. 

An official grocery store scale was used to weigh the fish under the supervision of a wildlife officer, and the TWRA even sent in a fin clip to a lab for genetic testing, leading to the confirmation of the record. 

Beyond its massive weight, the fish was also nearly 28 inches in length. 

The official record occurred almost two-and-a-half months after the fish was caught.

Nunley told News Channel 9 that "it felt like it ran straight toward me at first. I thought I missed it and then I finally caught up with it." 

He later stated: "It was a pretty good fight but it wasn't jumping or anything. I guess it was too big to jump. I didn't think it was as big as it was in the water, but then when we got it out of the water, I thought, 'My God, what have I done.'"

A state-record bass is exciting for anglers, but it also reflects the increasingly human-influenced reality of freshwater ecosystems. According to For The Win, the TWRA started stocking Tennessee waterways with largemouth bass in the early 2000s.

Largemouth bass thrive in warm, food-rich water, meaning some reservoirs may grow larger fish as seasons shift and conditions change. But the same human-driven factors that can help produce "monster" fish can also damage overall lake health. 

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