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BY DAVE LINK

Archer Reese and Connor Mason know what it’s like to land monster bass.

The Meigs County seniors have caught their share in years of fishing the area’s lakes and ponds.

Their biggest bass on Oct. 16 at Nickajack Lake near Chattanooga wouldn’t qualify as a monster – it was a 4.76-pound largemouth – but it helped them win the Tennessee BASS Nation Series’ Southeast Region tournament that day.

Mason caught the 4.76-pounder on a drop-shot rig (with a plastic worm).

“Nickajack’s a big smallmouth lake and it’s got a lot of spotted bass in it,” Mason said, “but a 4-pound largemouth, it was a pretty good fish on Nickajack.”

Reese and Mason won the tournament with a five-fish limit weighing 15.77 pounds. Four of the five bass were largemouth and one was a spotted bass.

Soddy-Daisy’s Logan Evans and Brent Rogers were second in the tournament, landing four fish weighing 11.74 pounds, including a 5.36-pounder.

It was Reese and Mason’s second tournament of the 2021-22 season and their first on the Tennessee BASS Nation Series.

“It’s a good start to the year,” Reese said. “The first tournament of the year was supposed to be in August at Watts Bar and it got cancelled because of COVID. I was happy with the way we did at Nickajack. We’re first in points. We just have to keep it going the rest of the year.”

HOW THEY STARTED

Mason and Reese are in their second season fishing the Tennessee BASS Nation series – they advanced to the Bassmaster High School Series National Championship last year – but they’ve been fishing together much longer.

They’ve known each other since the fourth grade.

“We’ve been around each other and fishing with each other for several years,” Mason said, “just pond fishing or going out on the boat fun fishing, but we just started competitively two years ago.”

When they fish tournaments, they use a boat owned by Connor’s dad Chris, who also serves as captain/driver during events.

Last year, they fished six tournaments – winning three – and finished fourth in the Southeast Region, qualifying for the nationals on Chickamauga Lake.

It’s a lake they know well.

In fact, it’s their home lake.

Mason lives in the Birchwood community next to Chickamauga Lake.

“I live right off the back of (Chickamauga),” Mason said. “I’m 3 minutes away from a boat ramp that we can go put in at. I’m really local, and that’s where I’ve fished my whole life.”

REESE: “IT WAS A MONSTER”

In their first tournament last year – the “Battle of the Chick” on Chickamauga, not part of the Tennessee BASS Nation tour – Mason caught a bass that weighed 10.8 pounds. It wasn’t surprising. Two weeks earlier, Mason caught an even bigger largemouth.

“It was a monster,” Reese said. “It was close to 12 (pounds), easy. It was by far the biggest bass I’ve ever seen.”

Mason recalls catching the big largemouth on a top-water walking bait, a spook. 

“As soon as it hit it, it just hit it like a normal bass and I didn’t expect anything of it,” Mason said. “I knew it dove down into the grass, so it felt pretty heavy but I just thought it was grass that I was pulling up with the fish, and then it got to the boat, and I looked down and I didn’t even think it was a bass, it was so big. I thought it was a big catfish or something. It got into the net and my adrenalin was going through the roof.”

The Tennessee state record for a largemouth is 15 pounds, 3 ounces and was caught on Chickamauga Lake by Gabe Keen on Feb. 13, 2015.

Although they missed qualifying for the third and final day of nationals last year on Chickamauga, Reese and Mason left with memorable experiences.

They caught the Big Bass of the tournament on Day 1 – 8 pounds, 11 ounces — on their way to the top of the standings. Their three bass weighed 15-plus pounds with Reese catching the Big Bass on a large jig.

“The second day we caught one fish,” Reese said, “but we were so far ahead after the first day, I think we were two and a half pounds from making the cut for the third day with four fish in a six-fish tournament. We were close to making the cut.”

WHAT’S AHEAD

Mason and Reese will fish about five more tournaments on the Tennessee BASS Nation Series with hopes of advancing to the nationals again in 2022.

Their next tournament is Nov. 13 on Douglas Lake.

“I’ve never been up there personally,” Mason said, “but Archer went up there a couple of weekends ago and fished around a little bit. He found a good group of fish. We’ve got a little confidence going up there, but you can’t say much about a lake you’ve never been on.”

Mason and Reese don’t plan to fish collegiately.

Reese is considering technical school or a college, while Mason might play collegiate golf.

Mason, who finished tied for 37th at the Class A state golf tournament Oct. 7-8 in Sevierville, took a visit to Tennessee Wesleyan on Oct. 27 and met with golf coach Jeff Rice.

While they probably won’t fish collegiately, they won’t be getting rid of their tackle.

“Fishing will be something that I do for the rest of my life, just like golf,” Mason said.

Don’t be surprised if Reese is in the boat, too.