MIAMI – Xzavier Peon, a 16-year-old angler from Miami, caught a jaguar guapote weighing 3.02 pounds and measuring 16 inches long in the Westwood Lakes area with live bait.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission fisheries biologists certified the catch as a new state record jaguar guapote.
“When I hooked it, I thought it was a peacock bass,” Xzavier said. “But once the giant jaguar came up, I knew that it was a state record almost instantly. We started freaking out once we realized it was a state record.”
Jaguar guapote are found primarily in the urban canal systems of southeast Florida.
The FWCmade jaguar guapote was made eligible for state record status in 2012. The first state record for the species was certified in 2017. That record stood for nine years until Xzavier’s catch was confirmed in September 2026.
Jaguar guapote are one of more than 30 nonnative freshwater fish species that have become established in Florida. The FWC encourages anglers to catch, keep and eat nonnative fish (except legally introduced peacock bass and triploid grass carp) to control their numbers and reduce potential impacts on native fish.
Anglers can check current state records at MyFWC.com/Freshwater.
