(Chris Lane admires the 5.80-pound redear mount on display in the Bass Tackler Master Store.)
You know what they say about cowboys with big boots? Big feet! You know what they say about lakes with big shell crackers? Big bass!
The rise of the redear sunfish population in Lake Havasu seems to coincide with the improvement in the bass population here. John Murray has been fishing bass tournaments at Lake Havasu since 1985. He remembers when 10 or 12 pounds would win a tournament here. Then there is now, when Edwin Evers led Day 1 with a five-bass limit weighing 20 pounds, 7 ounces.
“It’s nothing like it was then,” said Murray, who was second on Day 1 with 19-8. “Quagga mussels kicked up the food chain.”
The invasive species, like their cousins – zebra mussels, were identified a few years ago in various Colorado River impoundments, like Lake Mead and Lake Havasu. Rather than being a detriment to sportfish, like bass, they appear to have been a good thing. They’re definitely a good thing for growing shellcrackers, which get their nickname from a fondness for eating mollusks.
Randy Howell’s sons caught shellcrackers weighing 3 1/4 and 3 pounds this week.
“They said those fish fought like a combination between a smallmouth bass and a flounder,” Howell said.
The world record redear sunfish was caught from Lake Havasu on Feb. 16, 2014. It weighed 5.80 pounds, measured 17 inches long and had a girth of 19.5 inches. You can see the mount, plus another big one, at the Bass Tackle Master Store on London Bridge Road in Lake Havasu City.