The biggest bass of Matthew J. McNellis’ life, which was resurrected six weeks ago, came on probably his biggest joke cast – he used a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget to hook a lake record 10.80-pound largemouth.
McNellis, of Ferris, Texas, and fiancé Ashley Cumby were experiencing a bad day of fishing May 8 on Bardwell Lake, about 40 miles south of Dallas. They had no success trying almost every bait he had, so on a whim he rigged a half-eaten nugget on his hook and weight and cast it near High View Marina.
“As soon as that chicken nugget hit the water, it was instantaneous,” he said of the strike. “We thought it was a catfish. That thing was splashing. That was the biggest swale of water I’ve ever seen.
“It was a good fight. It lasted about a minute. He did pull the boat a little, turned it. I pulled him up to the side of the boat and when I saw him, I said ‘Holy #$@%, this is a bass!’ I was in shock.”
McNellis took the 24 1/2-inch fish to the marina office, where it was weighed and photographed before he released it. It topped the previous lake record of 10.44 from 11 years ago.
What’s even more remarkable was why McNellis has been fishing more of late – the 31-year-old had a near-death experience a month and half ago. While at Fairfield Lake to fish, he went into cardiac arrest at the hotel. Cumby immediately called 911.
“I wouldn’t be alive if she hadn’t been with me fishing,” he said.
Cumby insisted on staying at his side even when doctors said she couldn’t be in the intensive care unit. McNellis was clinically dead for three minutes before being revived, and he now requires a pacemaker.
After recovering, McNellis vowed to live life more fully, and that includes more fishing. He said he might not have been out on Bardwell to catch the lake record if not for the incident.
“Been doing a lot of fishing since I died. That kinda opens your eyes to what’s really important,” he said. “Some people just tell a good fish story. Some people just want to enjoy the outdoors. I don’t ever want to think that is the biggest fish I’ll ever catch.”
That certainly puts things into perspective. But then there’s the question, why in the world would you take a leftover from a 10-piece box and throw it?
“Cause I was eating it. We were just wondering if anything would bite on it. It was Ashley’s idea to use a Chicken McNugget on that cast,” McNellis said. “We hadn’t caught nothing. Zip. And I tried everything out of my tackle box. I looked over at her, ‘Do we give up? She said, ‘Why don’t you try a nugget?’”
McNellis said he’s heard of people catching fish on such odd things like peanut butter and New York cheesecake. (What is the craziest thing you’ve ever tried or caught a fish on? Answer below. As a youth, the author caught a bluegill at Table Rock Lake with a black licorice Chuckle – none of us liked that flavor.)
Building fences was McNellis’ trade before the incident, but while recovering more fully he’s turned his side job of putting custom Cerakote coatings on firearms into steady work.
A catch-and-release bass angler mostly, McNellis does pursue catfish, crappie and sand bass to eat. His previous big largemouth was an 8-pounder he caught on a Jitterbug in a friend’s seldom-fished Pennsylvania lake.
His big fish from Bardwell was initially misreported. He clarified that he used a rod and reel, and not a jug to catch the lake record as was reported in several outlets, although they were setting out jugs.
“We were just out having a good time,” he said. “It’s funny because I asked her, ‘Do you want me to do these jugs?’ ‘No, I want to do them all myself.’ We had three or four hooks on each, and by the time we were done, she was like, ‘I don’t ever want to do that again.’”
The jugs were unsuccessful, but the trip ended with a huge thrill and great story. It’s also going to look funny in the record books that the Bardwell Lake record bass was caught on a “Chicken McNugget.” But don’t expect a major trend.
“There were a group of women fishing and there were all stunned how I caught it,” McNellis said. “One said, ‘We’re going to McDonald’s to get some McNuggets right now.’”
The joke McNellis has been asked most is what type of dipping sauce helped entice the bite. Was it Creamy Crawdad or Spicy Bluegill?
The serious question is what he thinks would happen if he used an entire McChicken sandwich. Would he have caught a whole store of Filet-O-Fish?
“If I had a whole chicken sandwich, I would have had a world record,” he said. “If the record is 22, I would have caught a 24.”
