Zac Mickle has a knack for catching huge redear sunfish at Arizona’s Lake Havasu, but during a recent outing Mickle landed a redear so massive and plump that he described the fish as “a freak of nature.”
The egg-laden sunfish measured 16-1/4 inches and weighed 5.07 pounds. On Facebook Mickle boasted, “By far the greatest fish I have ever caught.”
The average redear sunfish weighs about a pound, perhaps a tad heavier in some fisheries. Much larger redear sunfish have been caught, but catches exceeding 5 pounds are extremely rare.
The International Game Fish Assn. lists as the all-tackle world record a 6-pound, 4-ounce redear sunfish caught at Havasu last May. The catch, by Thomas Farchione, is also the Arizona state record.
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Mickle told FTW Outdoors that he was fishing near submerged timber with 4-pound-test line and a piece of nightcrawler as bait when the enormous redear struck.
“I casted to the timber and let it drop to the bottom,” he recalled. “Seconds later I felt just a couple little taps on my line, which is exactly how these fish hit. You never know if it’s 4 inches or 5 pounds. I set the hook with my ultralight rod and the fish didn’t move. I knew it was big! I just didn’t know how big.
“She stayed deep for a long time not really doing much. With only 4-pound test I couldn’t do much. They usually go for runs but I think she was just so round that she couldn’t do that.
“When I finally started lifting her off bottom I saw that she was giant. I ran to the back of the boat to grab the net and luckily she went right in. This is when I could finally see exactly how big it was and I freaked out!”
Mickle said that while he releases most of the fish he catches, he kept the giant redear sunfish in order to have an exact replica made.
–Images courtesy of Stephanie O’Loughlin
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