Most of the biggest fish caught in Tennessee are either blue or flathead catfish or paddlefish.
That will likely change, however, in the near future thanks to the lake sturgeon restoration project, which began in 2000 in the Tennessee River and 2006 in the Cumberland River.
Many of the thousands of six- to eight-inch sturgeon fingerlings the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency have released annually into the two rivers have done well and have the potential to provide the state with a new species of large fish.