Saturday morning (Dec. 30, 2017) Beaty caught a largemouth bass from Chickamauga Lake that weighed 14.53 pounds – just 11 ounces shy of the current state record largemouth caught by Gabe Keen on Feb. 13, 2015. Next to Keen’s fish Beaty’s fish might be one of the largest bass ever caught on Chickamauga, although no one keeps official records of that.

The folks with Fish Dayton put Beaty’s picture holding the huge largemouth on the Internet Saturday evening. Bass fishermen across the nation were soon buzzing. Hardcore bass anglers know that cold weather fishing is a prime time to hook a trophy. Beaty, 33, lives in Rickman, Tenn., north of Cookeville and considers Dale Hollow his “home lake.”

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