He thought he hooked a bass. Instead, a teen shattered a 9-year state record, tell me about this news in (https://www.fox10tv.com/2026/09/20/he-thought-he-hooked-bass-instead-teen-shattered-9-year-state-record/)

This news story is about 16-year-old angler Xzavier Peon from Miami, Florida, who set a new state fishing record.

FWC

While fishing with live bait in the Westwood Lakes area of South Florida, Peon initially believed he had hooked a peacock bass. However, once the fish surfaced, he realized he had landed a massive jaguar guapotea nonnative freshwater species native to Central America that has become established in southeast Florida’s canal systems.

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Biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officially certified the catch as a new Florida state record. The fish weighed 3.02 pounds and measured 16 inches in length.

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The jaguar guapote was first made eligible for Florida state-record recognition in 2012, with the first certified record set in 2017. Peon’s catch broke that milestone, shattering a record that had held for nine years.

– Eye In The Sky News