Long-time bass guide and former tournament angler Hensley Powell was fishing Tennessee’s Nickajack Lake on Feb. 28. He was with Darrel Nunley, his friend of 20 years, and they launched Powell’s boat early that morning. The two headed to a shallow grass spot where Powell had led a party of anglers to a pair of 8-pound bass the previous morning.
“I gave Darren a Z-Man JackHammer Chatterbait to tie on that morning,” Powell tells Outdoor Life. “It was ½-ounce, colored green-pumpkin with a Hog Farmer Spunk Shad plastic trailer on the lure.”
The anglers fished for an hour or so. Then, about 8:30 a.m., with the sun still below the surrounding mountain tops, Nunley made a cast with plug tackle and 20-pound fluorocarbon line.
“He was just swimming the lure along and had a strike,” says Powell, 49, of Whitwell. “I thought he was hung on grass when his rod bowed and he started cranking. The fish was swimming toward us, and near the boat 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 well. But the morning was cool and the water temperature was around 50 degrees, and the heavy largemouth never jumped. Soon Nunley had it close to their boat, where Powell scooped it into the net.
“I told him, ‘Now that’s a fish’,” Powell said. “Darren was shocked when he saw how big it was. I weighed it twice on scales in my boat and it showed 15.5 pounds.”
The veteran guide knew immediately the fish was a potential Tennessee record. He called someone at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, 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 livewell and ran back to the boat ramp. They loaded the boat onto their trailer and drove to a nearby Save A Lot grocery store. Once there, they met Tennessee wildlife officer Shawn Edgeman, who helped with the weighing and measuring of Nunley’s bass.
“They weighed the fish three times at the store,” Powell said. “First time it weighed 15.93 pounds. Then they dried it off a bit and weighed it a second time. Then they dried it again to weigh a third time.
Read Next: Tennessee Fishing Guide Catches Record Bass that Officials Say Shouldn’t Be There
“I told him, ‘You can take a hair dryer to that bass to get all the water off it, and it’ll still be heavy enough for a state record.”
The third time they weighed it was official. The scale showed 15.75 pounds. After the paperwork is approved by the state, Nunley’s bass should be the top largemouth ever caught in Tennessee. The current state record, from 2015, weighed 15 pounds 3 ounces, and was caught on Chickamauga Reservoir by angler Gabe Keen.
“Darren lives near me, and I’ve known known him most of my life … He doesn’t get to fish as much as he’d like to,” Powell says. “God sent him that fish.”
Read the full article here
