Black bass measuring 11.02 and 12.6 pounds were taken on consecutive weekends at DeGray Lake by area anglers. Kanon Harmon (above) caught his monster, which was 26 inches long with a 21-inch girth and 15-inch-wide mouth, on Saturday, Jan. 27, fishing with two friends, brothers Carson and Blake Humphrey. Last weekend, Jimi Easterling, a buddy and mentor of Kanon’s, guided an angler from Memphis, Dabney Hammer, to a spot to land the 12.6-pounder.
Kanon reported catching his lunker with a white swimbait, a Motivated Exodus swimmer, at 35 feet depth in 60 feet of water. He said he was able to see the fish on LiveScope and put the perfect cast in its vicinity, played with it and got the fish to attack the bait. They were fishing in the area around the State Park Marina.
“I didn’t think it was a bass at first,” Kanon said. “I thought maybe it was a striper or hybrid. It wasn’t digging very hard. Bass usually take off as soon as you set the hook into them. But then I was fighting it in and fighting it in, we’re about to get to get it right to the boat and then I saw that Florida (bass) strain diamond pattern on it and thought, ‘This is a 10-pounder!” Everybody in the boat started to freak out.”
He had a 10-pound test line on his spinning rod, and they managed to get the fish in, weigh it first on a scale in the boat that didn’t give a consistent reading, then quickly took it to Iron Mountain Marina to use their scales, before getting photos and letting it go.