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Potential World Record Sunfish Caught in Lake Havasu, Wildlife Officials Think There Could Be Many More
By: Matt Alpert 3 days ago
Potential World Record Sunfish Caught in Lake Havasu, Wildlife Officials Think There Could Be Many More
Image: Arizona Game and Fish Depatment
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An Arizona angler caught a potential world record sunfish on Lake Havasu last Sunday.
Angler Hector Brito pulled a 5.78-pound 17-inch redear sunfish from the waters of Arizona’s Lake Havasu. His catch may have set a new International Game Fish Association world record, according to the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Brito caught the record sunfish around 11:30 am using a No. 8 Aberdeen gold hook and nightcrawler bait. He brought the catch to local bass pro John Galbraith to measure the catch on a certified Arizona Game and Fish scale. The current official world record sunfish is 5.55 pounds, caught by angler Bob Lawler in 2011. Brito may have him beat by a couple ounces. Pending IFGA certification, this is likely the world record for sunfish. But Arizona Game and Fish and Galbraith think there are plenty more monster sunfish swimming in the lake.
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Galbraith, who measured this record sunfish, believes that redear and other fish species are getting fat and happy off of invasive quagga muscles in the lake. Game and Fish can’t confirm the connection yet, but they think the invasive quaggas are the likely cause of the uptick of big sunfish.
“Brito said he thought it was a catfish,” Galbraith told Arizona Game and Fish. “I don’t know what the genetic potential is for redear. But this record fish was not even a spawning fish. There’s some out there that are in the mid-6 pound range easy.”
There you have it folks. If you want to catch monster sunfish, Lake Havasu is the place to be.
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