Tennessee Fisherman Just Landed A Fish The Size of a Deer (Largest Ever Caught in the State)

A Tennessee state fishing record has been broken in a big way. On April 13, Henry Dyer of Kingston, Tennessee landed a behemoth 149-pound paddlefish on Cherokee Lake northeast of Knoxville. That is about the same weight as a young adult white-tail deer! The fish was 79 ⅝ inches long with a  44 ⅜ inch girth.

This is actually the third year in a row that a state-record paddlefish has been pulled from the waters of Cherokee Lake. Leonard Jech caught a record 109-pound paddlefish on the lake in 2021, only to see his record fall the next year when Chad Collins landed a record 120-pound paddlefish on the same lake in 2022. Now, one year later and apparently right on schedule, a new state-record paddlefish has been caught on Cherokee Lake.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency confirmed the new record on their social media accounts.