Big Bad Brown

[fishwater]

Rockford man reels in world’s heaviest brown trout

Brian Mulherin - Daily News Staff Writer

Thursday, September 10, 2009

MANISTEE — If Tom Healy had hooked into a hammerhead shark Wednesday on the Manistee River, he could hardly have made a bigger splash in the world of fishing.

Healy’s 41-pound, 7 1/4-ounce brown trout was an instant state record and was big enough to eclipse the world record — assuming he provides the proper evidence and documentation to the International Game Fish Association or the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame.

But instead of regaling the crowd of onlookers at Mark Chmura’s charter fishing storefront in downtown Manistee with stories of his heroic battle, he was in the background, enjoying time and inside jokes with friends and kindred spirits.

He kept smiling and cracking jokes even after lifting the behemoth time and again for photos or video clips.

But that’s Healy, according to guide Tim Roller, who put the retired Rockford contractor on the fish of a lifetime.

“He’d be the one,” Roller said when asked if he could have picked a better client to catch a record. “He’s like a father to me.”

Healy was casting a black and chrome No. 7 Rapala Shad Rap aboard Roller’s boat on the Manistee River Wednesday morning when he hooked into what was clearly a nice fish.

Roller is no stranger to fish over 30 pounds, having tied into fish as large as 35 pounds with clients in 1999. Healy is a longtime client of Roller’s — the kind of client he doesn’t have to coach when a nice fish is on.

The fish fought like a big one, Roller said, and they both just assumed with the Chinook salmon run in full swing that it was another nice king.

But then it tried to jump and it couldn’t quite get out of the river. A typical king salmon, even on the end of its spawning run with its skin hanging on bare bones, can launch itself three or four feet out of the river. Something about this one wasn’t quite right.

When the fish hit, it ran straight away from the boat, but toward a bank. It really had nowhere to go but back toward the boat, so it never threatened to take all the line off the reel, Roller said. The 30-pound-test Power Pro line was up to the task with Healy on the reel. Roller said Healy reeled in the fish on a Cabela’s 9-foot medium heavy XML rod and a Prodigy reel.

Through the entire fight, Roller — who hosts the television show “Tim Roller’s Wild Addiction” said he didn’t say a word to Healy.

“I don’t even worry about him with a rod,” Roller said. “He’s caught so many fish.”

When the fish streamed by, it flashed the silver from its belly, reinforcing that it was a king in Roller’s mind.

But then it made another pass and Roller saw spots — “It’s an Atlantic!” Roller said he tried to say, but choked on the last syllable. The fish eventually came to the boat looking very much a brown trout, but the men still didn’t realize what they had. It was when Roller put the Boga grip on the fish and it bottomed out before the fish was out of the water that it struck them. A Boga is a handle with a scale built in and Roller’s measured up to 30 pounds.

Roller called Chmura, who is something of a Lake Michigan brown trout aficionado, in addition to being a charter captain and river guide. Chmura has a 43-inch brown trout on the wall of his shop and asked Roller how long Healy’s fish was. When Roller said about 44, Chmura dropped everything except his fishing client — the client, Healy, came along.

The fish was caught about 8:30 a.m. and cut short the day’s fishing. Healy had caught two other fish — nice kings — and was content to get the fish weighed. The scale, certified in April at InstaLaunch Marina and Campground, showed the fish weighed 40 pounds, 6 1/2 ounces. The current world record was caught on the White River in Arkansas and weighed 40 pounds, 4 ounces.

What started as just a big fish, although big browns are very rare in the river during the Chinook run, became the talk of the town, then the coast of Lake Michigan. By 1 p.m., cell phones in Ludington were ringing with the news that a big brown had been caught. The details were jumbled, but the main point was out — this was a special fish.

By 2 p.m., Michigan Department of Natural Resources biologists Todd Kalish and Mark Tonello arrived to weigh the fish. Tonello said the fish was definitely a brown trout and not an Atlantic.

“The characteristics were plain enough that I don’t think there’s any doubt,” Tonello said.

The first thing the biologists did was level the scale again. That made more than a pound of difference. Kalish and Tonello certified the fish as the state’s new record, eclipsing Casey Richey’s 36-pound, 13-ounce brown caught in 2007 in Frankfort. The biologists later reported that the fish was six years old — or older — after looking at scales under a microscope.

Whether Healy’s fish will displace the 40-pound, 4-ounce brown trout caught by Howard “Rip” Collins on Arkansas’ White River in 1992 remains up to Healy. If he can provide the proper documentation, which includes a sample of line, to the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame or the International Game Fish Association, the fish could be the new all-tackle record.

The only irregularity in Wednesday’s events was that the fish “gained” a pound and an ounce at the second weighing. Tonello was not present for the initial weighing said he did not believe the fish sitting in water between the weighings would make a significant difference in the weight.

Kalish said the fish was a testament to the quality of Michigan’s fisheries, with more than 10,000 lakes and 36,000 miles of stream.

“It’s a great thing for everyone involved,” Kalish said.

Tonello said the fish is almost certainly a Lake Michigan brown that chose to run up the river. All of the state’s previous five brown trout records were caught in Lake Michigan or a drowned rivermouth lake off the lake. All of them came in either Manistee or Benzie counties.

Brown trout are not native to Michigan but were imported in the 1800s and first planted in the U.S. on the Pere Marquette River near Baldwin. All brown trout are technically “German” brown trout because the brood stock came from Germany.

Chmura noted that of all the “Big Lake” fish, this was the one world record Michigan could take. The steelhead record will be in British Columbia and the Chinook record from Alaska will remain, but the brown trout record has always been in reach for Michigan anglers.

[Muskie456]

my word what a fish!!!!

[rushing]

WOW

[247outdoors]

Nice photo shop editing on the salmon! Almost got me!

[Nate McVey]

That is unreal! What a fish!