Fly Fishing lake Havasu for World Record Sunfish

After the last four world record red ear sun fish came out of Lake Havasu, I started to pay attention. The latest is a whopping six pounds four ounces, in May of 2021. As soon as I learned of this fish I called down to Don Allen, a guide on Lake Havasu and booked an eight lesson to learn about the lake and the fish in it in March of 2022. A buddy and I fished with DA for eight days and the inauguration of my new obsession was complete. The obsession - catch the new world record fly-caught red ear sunfish.

Dave and Mark with trophy red ear sunfish
Mark with DA on Lake Havasu with a striper

March 2022

Daves Havasu amallmouth
A days catch at Lake Havasu, including largemouht, smalmounth and trophy red ear sunfish
Mark and Dave with a very nice largemouth bass and a nice striper from Lake Havasu
Dave with a two pound Havasu sunfish
Mark and Havasu largemouth bass, red ear sunfish and smallmouth bass.
Mark with a 20 inch Lake Havasu largemouth bass

While Dave fished conventional, I tried in vain to fish with fly rod, but it proved too windy for me most of the time. We learned a lot, but most of all, I learned I was going to need more time. When I got home, I booked another week with DA for the spring of 2023 and I built my own Havasu boat, and made plans to stay for at Havasu for a month the next spring.

Mid April to mid May 2023

Over the winter I had bought a lean-to casualty from a friend. A four foot snow in dump at home in Fairbanks Alaska had crushed his lean-to and his wife’s 20 foot All-Weld jet boat. I bought the boat and repaired it. I also added seven thousand dollars worth of electronics and a trolling motor to it. On Easter weekend, Dave and I trailered it down to Havasu.

I brought five fly rods and about a thousand flies with me and was determined to make them work for me there. Dave was happy to fish with conventional gear. Over the month, we spent our week with DA, I learned a lot more about the lake and the fish. l learned how to make windy weather work for me and some more about finding fish. Due to high water up river, the water in the southern end of Lake Havasu was murky, not the crystal clear water we had become accustomed to. We had to learn to deal with that too.

One of Lake Havasus nice largemouth bass
A dark lake Havasu smallmouth
Here a really great mixed catch of Havasu largemouth and smallmouth bass
Don Allen is known as one of the premier guides on Lake Havasu.
We caught channel cats and flathead cats.
Three pound sun fish are getting to be more common.
We saw both groups of ewes and groups of ram desert bighorns.
Quagga Mussel fly tied by Mark Knapp for Lake Havasu
Dave and I caught lots of nice bass in Lake Havasu
Lizards are everywhere, they help keep the bugs down.
We weighed a lot of fish before we let them go.
Blue herrons and snowy egrets hang out at the fiah cleaning station.
Mark Knapps original quagga mussel fly for Lake Havasu.
I tied several sizes and colors of the quagga mussel fly for Lake Havasu
Smallmouth and largemouth are common in Lake Havasu.
It's hard to believe how good the bass fishing is on Lake Havasu.
3 pound plus smallmouths are pretty common on lake Havasu
One of the best seven best bass lakes in the US, Havasu has'm.
We fished for largemouth on the edges of the reed beds
They are not all three pounders but these are good eating sized.
A small havasu sunfish is big anywhere else in the US
One of my prettiest red ears all month
One of Mark Knapp's most productive fly patterns for Lakre Havasu, the quagga mussel.
Fly rods, fly boxes trophy application and leaders for Lake Havasu.
Donkeys from the gold rush a hundred years ago still populate the hills.
One of three cat fish we have caught in Lake Havasu
One of several trophy red ear sun fish we caught.
Fly rods from 2/0 weight to eight weight for Lake Havasu

Lake Havasu, April 22 to June 8, 2024

In the spring of 2024 I went to Havasu myself. I had some friends stop in to fish but mostly I was alone. I fished forty-five out of forty-seven days. For a week my outboard was broken down and I was left with just my trolling motor to fish with. I brought down eleven fly rods with me and over two thousand flies, some of them are original patterns. You never know what’s going to work on any given day, and when you find it, you don’t want to have just one. I used bait to prospect and switched to flies when I found fish. I was able to catch lots of fish, sometimes over twenty a day.

One of my first fish in 2024 In Lake Havasu
Crayfish are a huge food source for fish in Lake Havasu. Crayfish flies are attractive.
This Lake Havasu redear sunfish, caught on a Quagga Mussle fly, uses up the whole five gallon bucket.
Six fly rods, six different flies for six different presentations, for six different habitats on lake Havasu.
One of the prettiest Lake Havasu sunfish I've seen. 38cm.v
Quagga mussels can't tell the difference between the fly and a real quagga mussel.
Shell crushers, redear sunfish eat a lot of freshwater snails too. this is an original fly pattern by Mark Knapp that imitates them.
Anywhere alse this would be a great shellcracker, not in Lake Havasu.
Lake Havasu sunfish flies.
Different pound class tippets for different presentations in Lake Havasu.
My first fish on a fly in Lake Havasu
Lake Havasu redear
Woolly Bully flies, an orginal of mine, caught sunfish in Lake Havasu.
There was no shortage of largemouth bass action in Lake Havasu.
Nice smallmouth bass are common in Lake Havasu.
Big redears eat quagga mussle flies.
A cluster of quagga mussels on a lower unit from Lake Havasu.
An original fly pattern, the Woolly Bully originated by Mark Knapp, is popular with sunfish in Lake Havasu.
A three pound Lake Havasu redear hides under a dock.
We left the sunfish, redears and bass alone in the spawning beds in Lake Havasu. alone in the beds.
Smallmouth bass caught on a quagga mussel fly in Lake Havasu
The Woolly Bully, my original fly pattern caught some big Lake Havasu bluegill sunfish.
The Quagga Mussel fly pattern was effective on all species of sun fish, large and smallmouth as well as stripers on Lake Havasu.
One of several doubles Greg and I had in Lake Havasu.
Lake Havasu striped bass.
One of the many shades of color of Lake Havasu's redears.
A great Lake Havasu smallmouth.
One of four fly boxes I had tied for Lake Havasu.
Lake Havasu sunfish are sometimes as big as a five gallon bucket.
The San Juan Worm is one of many effective flies on Lake Havasu.
Three pound three ounce red ear sunfish caught on a quagga mussel fly.
A hybrid? sunfish on a quagga fly pattern in Lake Havasu.
Doubles on Lake Havasu are quite common.
This Lake Havasu sunfish is dark and big.
Redears this size in Lake Havasu are fairly common now. It's a little trickier to catch them on a fly rod.
The original Quagga Mussel fly pattern developed by Mark Knapp for Lake Havasu.
When a quagga mussel closes on your fly, you know you are fishing in the right place.
One of my biggest Lake Havasu redears so far.
Three of hundreds of pattern I tied to fly fish in Lake Havasu.
My fly casting platform on the "Redear Getter."

In the spring of 2025, I’ll be there for nine weeks while the quest continues. I’m bringing more fly rods and more flies with me. With any luck at all, I won’t catch the fish I’m looking for. I’ll just have to keep going back until I get him. This time, I won’t need to prospect with a dropshot worm.