Darren Nunley dreamed big when he got together with his longtime buddy Hensley Powell for a bass fishing trip on Nickajack Lake in Tennessee.
“I think every fisherman dreams about catching the biggest bass in the lake,” he told Wired2fish. “But most of the time, that doesn’t happen.”
About the photo: Darren Nunley (right) posed with his giant bass as his guide and longtime friend Hensley Powell looked on. Photo courtesy of Hensley Powell.
This time it did. Under the guidance of Powell, a popular guide on the 10,370-acre reservoir near Chattanooga, Nunley caught the bass of his dreams — a 15.75-pound largemouth.
Pending a routine review by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), Nunley will have a state record. The existing standard is 15.20 pounds, set in 2015 on Chickamauga Lake.
Both reservoirs are benefitting from the state’s introduction of Florida strain largemouth, which grow larger than northern-strain fish. Nunley has enjoyed that big-fish boom before, landing an 11-pound bass seven years ago at Chickamauga.
But Nickajack is the hot lake now, according to Powell, and the pre-spawn bite has already produced several bass in the 8-pound range.
In fact, Powell guided a friend to one of those fish the day before he took Nunley fishing. And Powell lost one that was about the same size.
That’s why he contacted Nunley and arranged for the Feb. 28 trip. The fishermen launched at sunrise, and Powell headed straight toward the waypoint marking where he found big bass the day before.
He handed Nunley a Jackhammer Chatterbait, the hot lure from the day before, and the fishermen began working a pocket where there was a contour change and where two types of vegetation met.
Powell guessed that one of the types of vegetation was just emerging, allowing the fishermen to retrieve their baits over the top of the new growth.
If you’re expecting an account of a vicious strike, you’ll be disappointed. Nunley could feel the weight of the fish, but it didn’t feel like anything special.
As it turned out, the bass was swimming toward the boat after Nunley set the hook. When he caught up to the fish, the fight was on.
“I think it was too big to jump; it just stayed down,” Nunley told Wired2fish. “It didn’t fight that hard until it saw the boat.
“When I saw its head come up, I knew I had something special.”
Powell slid the net under the bass and stared in disbelief. He knew immediately that it was a potential state record.
“We had only been out for an hour and we had to come in,” Powell said. “We had to get that bass weighed on certified scales and have a TWRA agent verify it.”
They eventually took the bass to a Save A Lot grocery store in Whitwell, Tenn., Nunley’s hometown. The weigh-in was witnessed by a TWRA officer, and now a routine investigation awaits.
Nunley plans to have the trophy bass mounted and on display in his house to remind him of his dream catch.
“I would have liked to release the fish, but there’s no way it would have survived after all we went through to get it weighed on certified scales,” Nunley said. “I’m just grateful to have caught a bass like this.”
