Zac Mickle caught a monster redear sunfish on Lake Havasu, which sits on the Arizona and California state line. The lake is perhaps the most renowned panfish water in the country. It appears on almost every panfish fanatics bucket list of places they want to fish, and for good reason. It yields giant fish each season.
The fish measured 16 and a quarter inches and weighed 5.07 pounds. Mickle’s sunfish isn’t big enough to take the record, though. Thomas M. Farchione’s IGFA’s all-tackle record redear sunfish measured 17 inches and weighed six pounds four ounces. It had a 20-inch girth. He caught that fish in May of last year on the very same lake.
Mickle’s fish might not be bigger than the record, but is an eye-popper nonetheless. “What a freak of nature!” he wrote in his Facebook post. “By far the greatest fish I have ever caught! I still can’t wrap my head around it.”
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For reference, large redear—ones that become state-record fish around the country—weigh around three pounds. For example, the current Texas record holder weighed 2 pounds, 15.84 ounces. Indiana’s record is 3 pounds, 10 ounces. Arkansas’ record sits at 2 pounds, 14 ounces. With this in mind, Mickle’s fish is a monster and on par with the biggest in the world. Every panfish angler in the country should have a trip to Lake Havasu planned at some point. It’s clearly worth the trip.