Gotcha with the headline, right?
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We thought so. There is a new largemouth bass record, but it's not the "world" record some people are waiting
to hear about from the International Game Fish Association. News from that organization about the big bass caught last summer in Japan is expected to be
announced soon.
No, this news came late Wednesday about a new bass record in Tennessee. But it really isn't a record, officially. It's
just that there is a giant largemouth bass swimming in a public lake in the western part of the state that easily eclipses the existing record.
Veteran outdoor communicator Larry Rea of Memphis broke the story on his site about the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
electroshocking a 16 pound, 15 ounce largemouth bass. The TWRA biologists do the electroshocking survey as part of its annual biological assessment of the
public lakes it manages.
Read that again: 16 pounds, 15 ounces. Amazing.
That's just a few shiners short of 17 pounds, a bass that normally would be thought to grow only in more southern
latitudes. Texas, of course, and Florida and California. Maybe in Alabama or Mississippi or Georgia. Maybe. Most likely in a private lake that is managed and
has ample forage.
Could a 16-pounder be swimming in a major waterway such as the Tennessee River or Chattahoochee or an oxbow in Mississippi?
Maybe a backwater in Arkansas? Possibly. But with all the angling over the years, all of the management and fishing techniques and number of
"man-days" on the water, it would seem likely that someone would have caught a lunker like that before now.
We're not saying it can't happen. Years ago when I was a nasty ol' newspaper scribe, I got wind of a story about a
guy in northeast Alabama catching a bass weighing more than 15 pounds on Guntersville Lake. It would have been the lake record, but despite the multiple
stories and a supposed photo, I couldn't pin down the angler.
The Tennessee lunker would be larger than the existing Alabama record (16-
, which was caught in a private lake.
Mississippi's record (18.15) came from Natchez State Park Lake. Georgia's, of course, is also the world mark of 22-4 set by George Perry decades
ago.
Rea reported the giant Tennessee bass came from a public lake in the TWRA's western district. There are seven lakes in it
the state manages, and state officials refused to identify the lake for fear of an onslaught of anglers. That probably will happen anyway and word will get out
soon.
To find out more about the big fish, visit Rea's site at www.lroutdoors.com and you can keep up with the story. We're certain Rea
will have more info as it develops, and you'll find some other cool stuff there as well.
As always, we'll keep you posted.
- Alan Clemons
