Texas Freshwater

by MATT WILLIAMS MATT WILLIAMS :: :: TF&G Freshwater Editor

Could Zebra Mussels Produce Record Panfi sh? Produce Record Panfi sh?

NEWS TRAVELS FAST WHEN somebody reels in a great big sh. Just ask John Galbraith of Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Galbraith is the owner of Bass Tackle Masters on Lake Havasu, a scenic, Colorado River reservoir along Arizona/California border. He was at his shop last May when Wisconsin angler omas Farchione walked in with a whale of a redear sun sh and asked to have it weighed on certi ed scales.

Galbraith has seen plenty of big redears over the years. His certi ed scales con rmed that Farchione’s catch was something special. e enormous sun sh tipped the scale to a previously unheard-of 6.30 pounds. It’s a pending All-Tackle World Record redear sun sh for the International Game Fish Assoc.

Measuring 17 inches long with a 20-inch girth, the sh eclipses the former world record of 5.78 pounds caught in 2014 by Hector Brito. Brito’s sh topped Robert Lawler’s 2011 world record of 5.55 pounds.

Both previous world records were also caught from Lake Havasu, a 19,300-acre reservoir that is fast becoming known as the Lake Fork of trophy redear lakes. Galbraith has an intimate knowledge of the lake’s history of kicking out giant sun sh. He weighed both of the previous world records.

Galbraith says he has averaged weighing 15 to 20 redears in the four-pound range and three to four sh topping ve pounds per year over the last two years.

What gives with all super-sized redear sun sh at Havasu? No one knows for certain, but some experts and local anglers believe it could be linked to something in the water. Namely, quagga mussels.

Like the invasive zebra mussels that have proliferated in many Texas lakes in recent times, quagga mussels are native to eastern Europe. Quaggas were rst discovered in the United States in 1989 a er foreign ships carrying microscopic quagga larvae discharged their ballast water into the Great Lakes. e mussels have since been con rmed in several western lakes, including Lake Havasu in 2007. e mussels’ razor-sharp shells can be problematic for humans. ey cause signi cant damage to water systems by clogging intakes if not kept in check. However, many locals contend the mollusks have been a blessing to Havasu’s proli c redear shery. e belief is the quaggas provide an abundant, high protein food source to complement other forage such as red swamp craw sh and grass shrimp. Also known as “shellcrackers,” redear are gi ed with pharyngeal teeth in their throats that help the pan sh crush the mussels’ hard shells to get at the goodies inside.

Galbraith has owned his shop for nearly 20 years. Over the last decade, he’s watched Havasu transition from an outstanding redear shery to one that is producing sh of colossal proportions on a regular basis.

“In my opinion the mussels have had everything to do with it,” he said. “ e lake record was a three pounder when the quaggas rst showed up in 2007, and it’s go en bigger ever since. Going from a three-pound lake record to a 6.30-pounder with three world records in a short time is no coincidence. e quaggas are the reason.”

Fisheries biologist Ty Hardymon with the Arizona Game and Fish Department says he believes it’s entirely possible that quagga mussels may be contributing to the trophy sh explosion at Havasu, but he doesn’t think the invasive mollusks deserve all the credit.

“It could be that the quaggas are part of a perfect storm out there,” Hardymon said. “I think there are a number of factors that play in that lake. It’s de nitely possible, or even highly likely that the quagga mussels are contributing the growth of those sh.

“I believe it also has to do with the extended growing season allowed by the warm climate, habitat availability and a variety of other resources. Plus, as a result of habitat selection, redears aren’t likely to encounter predators in Lake Havasu that will prey on them once they reach a certain size.”

Zebra mussels—a cousin to the quagga— were rst discovered in Lake Texoma in 2009 and have since proliferated in a host of other Texas lakes. Two dozen Texas impoundments are now considered “infested” with zebras.

Redear sun sh coexist with zebra mussels in several Texas lakes. However, there have been no reports that sun sh are growing at accelerated rates in any of those waters, according to Craig Bonds, inland sheries director with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. Bonds thinks it would be pre y cool if it did.

“We can go on all day talking about the negative consequences of zebra mussels,” he said. “But if we have to adapt to live with them in places where they already exist, it would be nice if not all of the e ects are negative. If some larger redears are in some of these lakes infested with zebra mussels, that would be a silver lining in my book.”

Europe. Quaggas were rst discovered in the United States in 1989 a er foreign ships carrying microscopic quagga larvae discharged e mussels have since been con rmed in several western lakes, including Lake Havasu in 2007. e mussels’ razor-sharp shells can be problematic for humans. ey cause sig-

The pending world record 6.3 pound redear sunfi sh.