redear sunfish – Syndication Server

Oklahoma teen lands massive sunfish, breaks 50-year-old record

A 16-year-old from Cheyenne, Oklahoma, has landed a massive redear sunfish to shatter a state record that had stood for 50 years.

Oklahomans who aspire to catch a record-size sunfish might want to visit their nearest farm pond.

Cord Smith, a 16-year-old from Cheyenne, is the new record holder after reeling a 2-pound, 5.6-ounce sunfish on from a one-acre pond in Roger Mills County.

His April 10 catch shatters the previous state record, 2 pounds, 1.25 ounces, established at a different farm pond in 1973.

According to Field & Stream, Smith was casting plastic lures after school with classmate Jacob Suarez when the massive sunfish struck.

Cord Smith (left) and Jacob Suarez pose with record sunfish. Photo: ODWC

Both anglers realized they might have netted a state record sunfish, so they kept the fish alive in a bucket until they could have it weighed on a certified scale at a Cheyenne market.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation certified the record on April 25, stating on Facebook: “Well done young man!”

The catch was a surprise because redear sunfish, also called shellcrackers, typically favor natural baits.

For comparison, the world record for redear sunfish is 6 pounds 4 ounces. That catch occurred May 4, 2021, at Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Light-tackle angler lands massive ‘freak of nature’ sunfish

Zac Mickle has a knack for catching large 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.”

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.

Zac Mickle with 5.07-pound sunfish. Photo: Stephanie O’Loughlin

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.

Zac Mickle’s 5.07-pound redear sunfish atop in ice chest.

“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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Massive sunfish catch still a ‘pending’ world record, IGFA says

The International Game Fish Assn. confirmed Friday that it’s reviewing a May 4 catch of a massive redder sunfish as a potential world record.

The International Game Fish Assn. confirmed Friday that it’s reviewing a May 4 catch of a massive redear sunfish as a potential world record.

“You may have seen this fish circulating the Internet in the past few weeks,” the IGFA stated on Facebook. “The IGFA recently received the application from Thomas Farchione for this enormous 2.83-kilogram (6-pound, 4-ounce) redear sunfish.

“This fish would potentially set the IGFA All-Tackle Record for the species and was caught out of the same lake in Arizona (Havasu) as the previous record.”

Lake Havasu is a reservoir on the Colorado River along the Arizona-California border.

Farchione, of Waterford, Wis., used a nightcrawler to entice the slab-like sunfish onto his hook. He was fishing in California Bay in 25 feet of water.

Since then his catch has been described as a pending world record. The IGFA on Friday explained that the approval process is “still under review.”

The current record – 5 pounds, 12 ounces – was set in February 2014 by Hector Brito.

Redear sunfish are native to Gulf states from Texas to Florida, north to Indiana and North Carolina. But their range has been expanded considerably in the U.S., thanks to introductions.

The fish are prized by light-line anglers for their fighting ability and as table fare.

Lake Havasu yields another redear sunfish of world-record size

Lake Havasu, home of the world-record redear sunfish, yielded another potential record when a Wisconsin fishermen landed a huge panfish.

Lake Havasu, home of the world-record redear sunfish, yielded another potential record Tuesday afternoon when Thomas Farchione of Wisconsin reeled in a 6.3-pounder that measured 17 inches with a 20-inch girth.

Farchione used a drop-shotted nightcrawler to catch the huge redear sunfish in 25 feet of water in California Bay, located south of the island and about half a mile north of Copper Canon on the California side of the lake, according to Today’s News-Herald of Lake Havasu City. The lake sits on the Arizona-California border.

The fish was caught around 1:30, and weighed 6.25 when Farchione and his friends used their own scale.

The certified weight was taken at Bass Tackle Master in Lake Havasu City, and it easily surpasses the current world record of 5.8 pounds caught at Lake Havasu by Hector Brito on Feb. 16, 2014 (photo below).

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So Farchone’s catch is a pending world record until confirmed by the International Game Fish Association, the keeper of world records.

Another example of a big one taken at Lake Havasu: Darrian Robinson of Fontana, Calif., caught a near-world-record redear sunfish in 2019 in the main basin of the lake. That one weighed 5.59 pounds.

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So, why are redear sunfish growing so big in Lake Havasu?

The redear sunfish also goes by the name of shellcracker because its favorite food is snails. In 2007, quagga mussels were discovered in Lake Havasu. It’s an invasive and prolific-breeding freshwater mussel that is encased in a shell. The copious amounts of quagga mussels have provided redear perch with an abundant food source.

In turn, the redear sunfish in Lake Havasu have helped put a dent in the quagga mussel population. According to the Arizona Game and Fish Department, redear sunfish have reduced quagga mussel numbers by as much as 25 percent.

And it helps explain why Lake Havasu produces the biggest redear sunfish in the world.

Photos of Thomas Farchione and his fish courtesy of Bass Tackle Master. Photo of current world record courtesy of Arizona Game and Fish Department. Quagga mussel image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

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