Angler Tom Healy Hooks 41 Pound Brown Trout
Angler Tom Healy Hooks 41.45 Pound Brown Trout while quietly floating along the Manistee River in Manistee County, Michigan.
Wednesday morning, September 9th, 2009, hoping to hook a few salmon, Tom Healy, 66, hooked a fish of a life time.
Tom Healy from Rockford, Michigan, caught a 41 pound, 7 ounce, 43.75 inch long brown trout. It took about 15 minutes before bringing it aboard his boat.
Tom’s trout breaks the brown trout state record and awaits verification by world record keepers as the largest brown trout ever caught.
Congratulations Tom Healy!
“When we hooked it, we knew it was a big fish. How big, we didn’t realize,” stated Tom.
Officials with the state Department of Natural Resources’ fisheries division Wednesday checked out the monstrous grab and said it meets all guidelines as Michigan’s new champion.
“This is one of the most amazing fish I’ve seen in my life,” said Todd Kalish, fisheries supervisor for the Central Lake Michigan unit, “a real testament of the world class fishery Michigan provides.
Angler Tom Healy Hooks 41 Pound Brown Trout and here is the fish story of a life time….
Tom was out with his buddies East Grand Rapids, Michigan, resident Bob Woodhouse and guide Tim Roller of Cadillac, Michigan, from Ultimate Outfitters. They were catching some salmon before hooking the big one near the Bear Creek access point.
The big brown tried to jump a couple times, but tom was able to wrestle it in open water with his Rapala Shad Rap lure and Cabela’s rod and reel.
“The reality of it is, I was pretty doggone lucky. It’s just one of those things,” Healy stated.
What record did Tom Healy break? The previous brown trout state record was 36 pounds, 13 ounces was set in 2007 by Casey Richey, near Frankfort Harbor.
According to the Florida based International Game Fish Association and the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum in Hayward, Wisconsin, the current world record is held by Howard Collins, who caught a 40-pound, 4-ounce brown trout in the Little Red River in Arkansas back in in 1992.
I know it must have been hard Healy said he plans to contact the IGFA to try to claim the record.
Tom usually practices catch and release, but this was one great grand daddy that he had to keep.
Tom loves to fish the Bahamas for bonefish and hitting the Florida Keys for tarpon and is a fisherman at heart.
He generally travels to the same spot on the Manistee River to pursue steelhead in October and November. Photographs, mounted pieces and replicas of trophy fish line his basement and office areas.
“I’m a fisherman at heart,” he said.
Tom’s quote is…”I’m a guy who believes if you put your line in the water, you’ve got a five-times better chance than if you keep it in the boat…”
Angler Tom Healy Hooks 41 Pound Brown Trout and Tom has taken his latest catch to a Manistee taxidermist’s shop and it will end up on his living room wall because there’s not enough room in his office…
ep it in the boat” Healy said.
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