Tennessee angler lands monster 15-pound largemouth bass that shatters state record held since 2015

A Tennessee angler just landed the fish of a lifetime.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency confirmed this week that a new state record largemouth bass has officially been established after angler Darren Nunley reeled in an absolute monster earlier this year.

And when we say monster, we mean monster.

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Nunley’s fish weighed in at a staggering 15 pounds, 7 1/2 ounces and measured 27 7/8 inches long, officially breaking a state record that had stood for more than 11 years.

According to TWRA, Nunley caught the fish on Feb. 28 in Nickajack Reservoir using a jackhammer chatterbait lure while fishing with a 17-pound fluorocarbon line and a Shimano reel.

The Whitwell, Tenn., resident landed the fish around 8 a.m., and after the bass was weighed on a certified scale and underwent genetic testing, the state officially confirmed the new record on May 9.

The previous Tennessee record belonged to Gabe Keen, whose 15-pound, 3-ounce largemouth bass was caught back in 2015.

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Longtime bass guide Hensley Powell was in the boat with Nunley when the record fish hit.

"I gave Darren a Z-Man JackHammer Chatterbait to tie on that morning," Powell told Outdoor Life. "It was a half-ounce, colored green-pumpkin with a Hog Farmer Spunk Shad plastic trailer on the lure."

At first, Powell thought Nunley had gotten snagged in grass.

"He was just swimming the lure along and had a strike," Powell said. "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."

Then came the moment every bass fisherman (and woman) dreams about.

"I told him, ‘Now that’s a fish,’" Powell recalled. "Darren was shocked when he saw how big it was."

And the timing of all this couldn’t be much better for Tennessee’s bass fishing scene.

This fall, the Nashville area will host The Champions, a massive new bass fishing tournament featuring the top anglers from both the Bassmaster Elite Series and Major League Fishing’s Bass Pro Tour competing for a record-setting $3.25 million purse. The event is scheduled for Oct. 28-Nov. 1 on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, just outside Nashville.

And after seeing the kind of fish Tennessee waters are producing these days, it’s pretty easy to understand why the Volunteer State is becoming a bass fishing hot spot.