ROANOKE, W.Va. — When Chris Hughart of Wirt County headed to Stonewall Jackson Lake Saturday to fish a B.A.S.S. Nation event he admitted he had no expectation of anything other than an enjoyable day of fishing. He had read on-line there was an open slot and they needed an angler to fill out the roster for the tournament.
“I didn’t have anything to do Saturday, so I told Dale Brown I was interested,” Hughart said in an interview for West Virginia Outdoors.
Hughart has been bass fishing for around six years and although he fishes fairly regularly, he wouldn’t describe himself as a die-hard. But on this particular day, it wasn’t really about being a die-hard or even about winning a tournament, the idea was to try and qualify to fish the Bass Nation West Virginia State Championship. In a blind draw he was paired up with boater Wyatt Powell, also from Wirt County, and what neither of them realized as they blasted off that morning headed to the south end of the lake was they were about to make history.
“It was the first time I ever fished with him and he chose where we were going. It wasn’t long until we were on fish. We started catching fish right off the bat that morning,” Hughart explained.
The two of them concluded a creel of about eight pounds would be enough to qualify into the state tournament as a boater, which was the goal. Wyatt said after he had a limit and felt like he was in a good position to make the cut, he would let Chris have the front of the boat to see if he could do the same.
Close to noon. Chris had two fish from the back of the boat and Wyatt caught one which gave him what he needed. As promised, he relinquished the point.
“He had about four and we went around this bank and he caught one about three pounds and then he said, ‘All right you’re up.’ That was about 11:40,” Hughart said.
Moments after the switch, Wyatt had another nice fish in the boat fishing behind Chris and was able to cull one from the livewell and upgrade the size of his stringer. As they approached a large tree-top in the water, Chris tossed his Brush Hog bait into the center and let it sink.
“I felt just the faintest bite, almost like a bluegill had bumped it. I said, ‘There’s a bite,’ and set the hook,” said Hughart.
Pandemonium set in as Hugart realized it wasn’t just any fish he had on the line, he had one of those fish which could single handedly win the tournament and he was trying to bring it up through the branches of a downed tree. Fortunately, a week earlier Hughart had been fishing and noticed the pattern of bass and the conditions. He had put 20 pound test line on a much stiffer rod than he normally would use in a West Virginia lake. The decision paid off.
“I told Wyatt, you’re going to have to help me and he didn’t hesitate. He put his pole down and came down into the bottom of the boat and flipped him over into the bottom of the boat. When he handed him up to me, the hook fell out of his mouth. It was just meant to be,” said Hughart.
Out of breath and feeling the adrenaline, both anglers marveled at the massive bass he had just pulled from the depths of Stonewall. The two were so excited, and so frazzled from the catch all they could think to do was get it into the livewell. There were no on the water pictures for fear it would find a way to flip out of the boat and be nothing more than a hard to believe story. Hughart relinquished the front of the boat, content to stand on the hand he’d been dealt.
“I wasn’t even certain this fish would hold up because Stonewall is known for big bass. I told Wyatt somebody else would have one bigger. Wyatt said there was less than a two percent chance anybody would have one bigger than that,” laughed Hughart.
At the weigh-in, Powell’s prediction proved accurate. The big bass weighted 7.70 pounds. Not only was it the biggest bass of the tournament it was the biggest one ever caught in a BassNation West Virginia tournament. The old record was 6.64 pounds caught in 2022 by Chris and Hunter White, also at Stonewall Jackson.
“We both about came out of the boat, we never would have expected that especially in September, you know maybe in April when they’re spawning you can catch fish of that caliber,” he laughed.
Hughart ended up finishing third in the tournament and had the big fish of the event. He qualified Hughart for the upcoming West Virginia Bass Nation State Tournament and he plans to fish the event. He was fairly certain it would take more than one fish to make the state team in that one, but then again, you never know.