Gabe Keen appears to have broken a 60-year-old, bass-fishing record in the state of Tennessee. He landed a 15.2 pound largemouth bass on Lake Chickamauga on Friday Feb. 13, 2015.
Keen, a history teacher from Campbell County, Tenn. and coach of the high school bass fishing team had the day of all days while bass fishing on Chickamauga Friday morning. The school was apparently out because of illnesses being so widespread in the district. So he used the off day to practice for a local tournament CATCH Ministries tournament on Saturday.
Keen was fishing with a Dixie Custom Rods umbrella rig with Zoom Swimmin Super Flukes when the fish bit just before lunch time on Friday. Reports said he had caught a 9-pounder off the spot last year. His catch, pending certification by the TWRA, will eclipse the 60-year-old record set by James Barnett Oct 17, 1954. Barnett’s fish weighed 14.8 pounds.
The fish was weighed on the certified scale at the Bi-Lo Grocery Store in Soddy Daisy, Tenn. Chickamauga has built quite a reputation for big bass and umbrella rigs in the winter the last few years. You can read multiple stories of anglers like Rogne Brown and Michael Neal catching 30 and 40 pound limits of bass in tournaments and fun fishing the past few winters.
Read more about those catches here and here.
Here’s another look at Keen’s amazing record-setting bass. Congrats Gabe!
