Tom Healy says he’s “just an old retired guy who came to Manistee for a nice day of fishing.” But after landing what appears to be a world-record brown trout today, he suspects “they’re going to make me the king of Manistee, Michigan.”
“We’re real happy to bring the world record back to Manistee,” the 66-year-old Rockford angler said after landing a 41-pound, 7-ounce brown in the Manistee River. “I’ve fished here 20 years and come regularly, and I’ve caught some nice salmon. But never anything like this.”
The huge brown beat the existing world record from Arkansas by 1 pound, 3 ounces. The state record was 36-13. The fish took a black-and-silver Rapala Shad Rap crankbait that Healy cast from fishing guide Tim Roller’s boat. Healy used a Cabela’s XML spinning rod and Cabela’s Prodigy reel loaded with 30-pound braided line.
“Tom cast, and I saw him set the hook,” Roller said. “The fish tried to jump, but it could only porpoise on the surface. I heard a splash and turned too late to see the fish. But I saw the huge tail and said, ‘You have a big salmon.’”
Healy said the fish fought 15 minutes before coming to the boat. The record fish from Arkansas fought five minutes. Roller said, “We didn’t realize it was a brown until we were about to net it.”
The fish was weighed before Department of Natural Resources biologists, who certified it at 41-7.
They took scale samples that will be tested to prove it’s a brown trout and not a closely related Atlantic salmon.
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