Big Congratulations to Mr. Thomas Healy of Rockford Michigan. Everyone would love to have a World Record hanging on their wall or perhaps hanging on the wall at The Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum in Hayward, WI.
Rockford man lands brown trout world record in Big Manistee RiverBy Aaron Ogg, The Grand Rapids Press, found at MLive.com
December 13, 2009
Thomas Healy shows off the world record brown trout he caught in Big Manistee River
in September. (Courtesy Photo)ROCKFORD -- With one world-record fish under his belt, Thomas Healy is not holding his breath for another.
“I have a hard time believing it could happen again tomorrow,” said the Rockford man, 66, who caught a 41-pound, 7-ounce, 43.75-inch brown trout in the Big Manistee River in Manistee County in September.
Healy received notice this week from the Dania Beach, Fla.-based International Game Fish Association that his grab is the largest ever hooked.
The catch eclipses the world record set by Howard Collins, who caught a 40-pound, 4-ounce brown trout in the Little Red River in Arkansas in 1992. It smashed the former state record, held by Casey Richey for his 36-pound, 13-ounce brown trout caught near Frankfort Harbor in 2007.
The retired Owen-Ames-Kimball construction company president said he has returned to the locale about a dozen times since fate wrangled with his Rapala Shad Rap lure and Cabela’s rod and reel.
He had help from 15-year fishing buddy and East Grand Rapids resident Bob Woodhouse and guide Tim Roller of Cadillac-based Ultimate Outfitters when he wrestled with the behemoth near the Bear Creek access point.
“It seems like wherever I go, people either recognize me -- ‘Oh, you’re the guy who caught the fish’ -- or I’m introduced as the guy who caught the fish,” Healy said. “The glory goes to the fish.”
The Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum, of Hayward, Wis., hailed Healy’s fish as a world record in October. The state’s Department of Natural Resources is awaiting DNA test results to determine the strain. Todd Kalish, fisheries supervisor for the Central Lake Michigan unit, said it is likely a seeforellen, wild rose or part of the naturalized population.
The fish currently is wrapped up in Healy’s freezer, awaiting work by a yet-to-be-determined taxidermist in the next couple weeks, he said.
“I wanted to make sure it was going to be a world record,” Healy said.
http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2009/12/rockford_man_lands_brown_trout.html
