West-central Arizona’s sprawling Lake Havasu is a popular spot for boaters. The deep and clear, 19,000-acre reservoir on the Colorado River offers good fishing, and heavy boat traffic is something veteran anglers have learned to deal with.
“I was fishing with my fiancé Sarah Harris about mid-day, and we’d moved well out from shore because there were plenty of people trying for bedding panfish in shallower water,” Daniels tells Outdoor Life. “It was about midday, and I figured the bigger fish had moved out, so we eased about 100 yards off the bank.”
They were looking for fish along structure and near drop-offs with their Lowrance forward-facing-sonar, and Daniels finally noticed a large fish close to a creek mouth. It was holding on a flat near a sunken tree in 15 feet of water.
“It was a big sonar mark in deep water that I figured was a smallmouth bass,” explains the 42-year-old Phoenix resident. “I cast a micro jig with a small piece of earthworm attached to it with ultralight tackle. I let it sink to the bottom where the fish was holding, but nothing happened … [then] I twitched the 1/32-ounce chartreuse-colored Berkley ‘Atomic Tube’ lure once, and the fish took it.”
Daniels says the fish fought hard and deep, and he still thought it was a good smallie at first. But four minutes later, using 6-pound test, and a long 7-foot-9-inch rod, he brought the fish to the surface where he saw it wasn’t a bass, but a giant sunfish.
“I knew it was a big redear, so played it carefully until Sarah netted it and brought it into our boat,” says Daniels, the owner of Pro Bass Adventures, a fishing operation based on Mexico’s El Salto and Baccarac Lakes.
Daniels keeps certified scales in his boat, along with a length measuring board. He has dozens of world and state records to his credit, so he’s always prepared when a potential record is caught.
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“When we put the sunfish on the boat deck, we knew it was a special fish,” Daniels says. “We immediately put it in our live well, then got out the measuring board and made photos of the fish.”
The redear sunfish measured 16 inches long with an 18-inch girth. After rigging up their certified scale and moving to shore, Daniels quickly weighed the sunfish on the bank where it tallied 4 pounds, 12 ounces.
“I wanted to release it, but I also wanted a replica mount of the fish,” Daniels says. “I put the fish in our boat live well again, and called my taxidermist to see if he had a mold of a sunfish of the same dimensions. He said he had a slightly smaller one, and I said, ‘Great, that’s close enough.’”
Daniels released the trophy redear, and he later submitted paperwork to the Arizona Game and Fish Department for a catch-and-release record. His record was approved by AZGFD fisheries staff on June 19.
“Havasu has given up some huge panfish,” Daniels says. “By releasing her, maybe I can catch her again a year or two from now and she’ll be [big enough] to set another record.”
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