{"id":1066,"date":"2023-04-19T06:22:17","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T06:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=1066"},"modified":"2023-04-19T06:22:17","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T06:22:17","slug":"tennessee-man-snags-new-state-record-paddlefish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=1066","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Man Snags New State-Record Paddlefish"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">East Tennessee angler Henry Dyer was out fishing on Cherokee Lake Thursday evening when he caught the biggest fish of his life and made Tennessee fishing history. Dyer\u2019s 149-pound paddlefish has been accepted as the new state-record for the species, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tnwildlife\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency<\/a>. But that\u2019s not all. Looking at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tn.gov\/twra\/fishing\/awards-fish-records-photos.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">state\u2019s record book<\/a>, the giant paddlefish also happens to be the largest fish (of any species) ever recorded in the Volunteer State.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftnwildlife%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0SHifbvczGZbK1ut3VXM9uKoeL7D7pQYnFCMBKKyrv42C4Y1Y56My6weBWQbqRChql&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"583\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal, at least in my mind it is,\u201d TWRA assistant chief of fisheries Jason Henegar told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Dyer was fishing with his guide buddy Brian Townsend when he made the historic catch. And while the two anglers have snagged paddlefish in the past, that wasn\u2019t their original intention last week. They started out fishing for bass after launching their boat on Cherokee Lake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t snag for paddlefish a lot,\u201d said Townsend. \u201cWe\u2019d just gone down there to try and catch some stripers or hybrids, but we saw other people snagging for paddlefish so [we] decided we\u2019d try it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In hindsight, it was the right decision, and it didn\u2019t take long for Dyer to snag a true giant. He was using a heavy rod and a Penn reel spooled with 80-pound test\u2014a setup that he\u2019d nicknamed \u201cOld Blue.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I snagged that thing, I thought I\u2019d hung on a stump and then all of a sudden it just took off,\u201d Dyer told <a href=\"https:\/\/newschannel9.com\/sports\/outdoors\/man-reels-in-largest-fish-ever-caught-in-tennessee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ABC-9 News<\/a> in Chattanooga. \u201cI was in the back of the boat and it was all I could do to hold onto it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roughly 35 minutes later, after holding on through multiple long runs, Dyer got the fish to the side of the boat, where Townsend gaffed it. But it was too big for Townsend to haul over the gunnel on his own.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen he hollered, \u2018Help me!\u2019\u201d Dyer continued. \u201cI grabbed another gaff, and it took the two of us three tries to get it in the boat. I\u2019m a little feller and that fish weighed more than me.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-default\" data-dimension=\"landscape\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Stretched across the tailgate, Dyer\u2019s paddlefish was over six feet long. <i>courtesy of TWRA<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The two anglers brought the fish to the truck and drove to the nearest certified scale they could find, which was located at Hawkins Farmers Coop in Rogersville. The 149-pound fish measured 79 and 5\/8 inches long with a 44-inch girth.<\/p>\n<p>Dyer caught the fish on April 14, and TWRA made the record official on April 18. Dyer\u2019s paddlefish replaces the previous state-record paddlefish: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/fishing\/tennessee-state-record-paddlefish\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a 120-pound paddlefish caught last year<\/a> by Tennessee angler Chad Collins. That fish also came from Cherokee Lake.<\/p>\n<p>Dyer\u2019s paddlefish now sits at the very top of the Tennessee fishing record book as the largest catch in recorded history. The No. 2 spot now belongs to a 130-pound blue catfish that was caught from Ft. Loudon Lake in 1976.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-snagging-paddlefish-in-tennessee\">Snagging Paddlefish in Tennessee<\/h2>\n<p>American paddlefish are plankton eaters. Because they don\u2019t strike lures, the only real way to catch them is by snagging (or pulling large treble hooks through the water). The prehistoric species is protected throughout their native range, and snagging is only allowed in certain states during brief periods.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Next:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/catch-giant-paddlefish\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How To Catch Giant Paddlefish with Giant Hooks<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tn.gov\/twra\/fishing\/where-to-fish\/east-tennessee-r4\/cherokee-reservoir.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TWRA regulations<\/a> allow anglers to snag paddlefish on Cherokee Lake during a short, two-week window from April 1 to 15. The limit there is one paddlefish per day.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v3.2\" id=\"facebook-js-js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/fishing\/new-tennessee-state-record-paddlefish\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>East Tennessee angler Henry Dyer was out fishing on Cherokee Lake Thursday evening when he caught the biggest fish of his life and made Tennessee fishing history. Dyer\u2019s 149-pound paddlefish has been accepted as the new state-record for the species, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. But that\u2019s not all. Looking at the state\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gun-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}