A very good year for Spring City pro fisherman Wesley Strader got even better a couple of weeks ago when the 6-pound-7-ounce spotted bass he caught July 30 in the Ocoee River just below Parksville Lake was certified as a state record by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Strader pulled in the record fish on an outing with his friend Brad Peterson of Benton, which is in Polk County near the site of the catch.
Strader, who finished second in the season-ending FLW Eastern Series tournament on Chickamauga Lake and now has nearly $1 million in career earnings, was announced in late October as one of the leaders of Team Walmart on the 2011 FLW Tour, which has Walmart as its title sponsor.
The previous Tennessee record for a spotted bass weighed 5-14 and was caught Dec. 31, 2008, in Parksville Lake by Jack Paul Watson of Tellico Plains.
In midsummer, the TWRA confirmed another fish caught in the Polk County reservoir as a state record - a 2-pound, 2-ounce yellow perch hooked by Jackie Kersey IV of Cleveland on March 10.