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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…

IGFA: 26-lb. landlocked Atlantic Salmon’s a new World Record

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If landlocked sockeye got this big, you'd never land one!


On March 14, the International Game Fish Association announced that that the 26-pound, 12-ounce landlocked Atlantic Salmon caught last fall by Tom Aufiero of Lafayette, IN in Michigan’s Torch Lake catch is the new IGFA All-Tackle world record for the species.

Aufiero caught the fish on a small shrimp-patterned fly fished on 6-pound tippet with guide guide, Matt Supinski, owner of the Gray Drake Lodge.

For more details, click HERE

The new All Tackle World Record Brown Trout??

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(IGFA Photo)

On July 16, less than a year after Michigan’s Tom Healy set a new All Tackle World Record for brown trout with a 41 pound, 7 ouncer, Roger Hellen of Franksville, WI banged a monster brown that was larger than the current record — by an ounce (41 pounds, 8 ounces). Hellen hooked the beast while trolling a Fishlander spoon in Lake Michigan off the Wisconsin coast.

Now, here’s where things get a little dicey: Though Hellen’s fish is one ounce heavier than the current all-tackle record, according to IGFA World Record requirements, to replace a record fish weighing 25 pounds or more, the replacement must weigh at least one half of 1 percent more than the existing record. Bottom-line, Healy and Hellen might be sharing an IGFA World Record tie for their two fish. As a baseball guy, I’m not a big fan of ties, but what can you do here?

I have no idea how Hellen’s fish was handled, but if it were thrown on the bottom of the boat and allowed to dry out rather than being put immediately on ice, (again pure speculation on my part…though the fish in the pic looks pretty leathery), it would have lost a significant amount of weight…enough, probably, to make the difference.Click here to read more…

River Monster: The new world record Blue Catfish

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The new record blue cat: If that doesn't stop ya from wanting to go noodlin', I don't know what will! (Photo:IGFA)


Though it looks like something from a B horror flick that crawls out of the sewer to eat unsuspecting college co-eds, this repulsive beast is actually a pending IGFA All Tackle World Record blue catfish.

Greg Bernal of Florissant, MO nabbed this 130-pound giant blue cat (think about that one for a minute…130 pounds of catfish) while fishing on the Missouri River, out of North County, MO with an Asian carp for bait. The battle lasted 20 minutes and the fish bested the previous world record for the species by 6 pounds. The old mark for blue cats was a 124 pounder caught five years ago by Timothy Pruitt from the Mississippi River near Alton, Ill.

Guess it’s catfish dinner tonight, honey!

For more world record info, check out IGFA.org