Lake Havasu’s reputation as one of the best places to catch large sunfish was enhanced the first week of May when angler Thomas Farchione of Wisconsin caught a pending world record redear sunfish. The hefty sunfish, which Thomas caught by drop shotting a night crawler, weighed in at 6.3 pounds, was 17 inches long, and had a 20-inch girth. The previous record for a redear also came from Havasu, weighing in at 5 pounds, 12.8 ounces and caught by Hector Brito. 

Thomas said he’d been at Lake Havasu for about a month and fished for eight to 10 hours a day for 20 days. On this particular day, he was fishing with his best friend Gregg, who netted the catch.

“I usually fish for bass, but I wanted to particularly focus on redear this day. My goal was to catch two 4-pounders,” said Thomas. He added that right after his big catch, he caught a 3-pounder.

Thomas has submitted his record application, so it will probably take a few weeks before it is certified by the International Game Fish Association.

Two good stories about this ran on the websites of Game & Fish magazine and Field & Stream magazine.