World record vs average fish size
46 species across 5 families, each charted from the all-tackle world record down to the fish you actually catch. Some records are a lifetime away; others are closer than you think.
Bass & Sunfish
The everyday freshwater quarry. The gap between an average bluegill and the record book is smaller than you think — and the largemouth record has stood, tied, for decades.
- Largemouth Bass — 22.4 lb record
- Smallmouth Bass — 11.9 lb record
- Spotted Bass — 10.3 lb record
- White Bass — 6.8 lb record
Pike, Walleye & Rough Fish
Cool-water predators and river giants. The muskellunge record has survived 75 years of better gear and sonar; the alligator gar record is older than most living anglers.
- Walleye — 25 lb record
- Northern Pike — 55.1 lb record
- Muskellunge — 67.5 lb record
- Chain Pickerel — 9.4 lb record
Trout, Salmon & Catfish
Cold-water icons and the catfish that outgrow them. The Kenai chinook and the Buggs Island blue cat show how far a big river system can stretch a species.
- Brook Trout — 14.5 lb record
- Brown Trout — 42.1 lb record
- Rainbow Trout — 48 lb record
- Cutthroat Trout — 41 lb record
Inshore Saltwater
Bays, beaches and jetties. Red drum, halibut and cobia — the records here came from water you can reach in a bay boat or from shore.
- Red Drum — 94.1 lb record
- Black Drum — 113 lb record
- Spotted Seatrout — 17.4 lb record
- Snook — 53.6 lb record
Offshore & Billfish
Bluewater legends. The 1979 Nova Scotia bluefin and the 1953 Chilean swordfish have outlived every 'unsinkable' record that followed them.
- Wahoo — 184 lb record
- Mahi-Mahi — 87.9 lb record
- Yellowfin Tuna — 388.8 lb record
- Bluefin Tuna — 1496 lb record
Caught something outsized?
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