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Jurassic Sunfish!!

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Robert Lawler with his giant redear sunfish...we're sure he was happier about the potential record catch than he's letting on! (IGFA photo)

In a perfect world, you’d be a zillionaire, you’d look like Brad Pitt, you would be dating three Victoria’s Secret Models at the same time…and all the panfish in your backyard pond would be this size!

This mammoth…and I do mean mammoth readear sunfish was caught last month in Lake Havasu by Robert Lawler of Lake Havasu City, Arizona who was fishing with a Berkley Power Worm. The beastly panfish tipped the scales to 5 pounds, 7 ounces and looks like it will tie the existing All-Tackle IGFA World Record for the species (pending application).

But let’s get back to that little fantasy thing again. So, if all the bluegill in your pond were this big, just imagine the size of the largemouth that would be eating them…

New Utah Record Cutthroat Trout!

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Curtis Robinson released this 31½-inch cutthroat trout at Utah's East Canyon Reservoir


Talk about a great way to shake off Cabin Fever! Curtis Robinson caught this massive 31½-inch cutthroat trout at East Canyon Reservoir and it’s being recognized as the largest cutthroat trout ever caught and released in Utah.

It’s great that Robinson released the fish and what’s also very cool is that he caught it on a homemade marabou jig.

Read the whole story in Brett Prettyman’s column in the Salt Lake Tribune

125 Pounds of Paddlefish: A New Oklahoma Record

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Aaron Stone with his 125-pound 7-ounce OK state record paddlefish April 10 from the Arkansas River. Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife Conservation/Courtesy


Here’s Aron Stone of Pawhuska, Oklahoma with a new state record paddlefish from the Arkansas River that weighed 125 pounds, 7 ounces. An impressive beast to be sure, but I’m not totally sure how I feel about the way folks go about catching paddlefish in the areas where they live.

As plankton feeders, paddlefish won’t bite anything when they run upstream to spawn, so snagging with treble hooks is allowed. While perfectly legal, for some reason, this just sounds kinda crude and barbaric to me but then again, it’s really the same thing that happens when sockeye (red) salmon run. They’re also plankton feeders and really don’t bite well in freshwater, so legalized snagging is acceptable and widely-practiced. You just snag reds in the mouth with beads, yarn or Coho Flies instead of gut hooking them with trebles (I’ve done it).

I guess I really shouldn’t knock something I don’t know all that much about, but paddlefish snagging just doesn’t seem all that cool. But maybe I’ll have to give it a shot someday…just so I can comment more intelligently about it in the future. Maybe there are plenty of ’em and the populations can handle the snagging. Perhaps I’m way off base here (wouldn’t be the first time!) and these are just the ignorant thoughts of one West Coaster…

What do y’all think?

Mikey Does it Again: A new Lake Tahoe record Brown Trout!

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Marvin Child with his record brown!

Mike Nielsen of Tahoe Topliners is a very dangerous man…if you’re a brown trout, that is. This morning, he guided client Marvin Child to a new Lake Tahoe record brown trout. The fish weighed 15 pounds, 15 ounces and beats the previous mark of 15 pounds, 2 ounces, which was a fish that Nielsen guided a client to in 2008, which beat the previous record fish that…yep, you guessed it he guided yet another client to. Like I said, he’s a bad, bad man!

The latest record catch (which measured 36 inches), sucked down an F11 silver and black Rapala doused in Pautzke’s Liquid Krill.

Giant Lake Shasta Spotted Bass not far off World Record!

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A new Lake Shasta record for spotts!


Our old friend Scott Green is one of the top bass anglers in all of California. If you ever see his name in a tournament you’re fishing at places like Clear Lake, Berryessa or Shasta, start thinking about second place! To prove my point, check out these massive spotted bass from Lake Shasta he just caught, including a new lake record 8.85 pounder, which is a pound and change off the World Record!

Nice work, dude!