World Record Brown Trout Caught in Michigan on Shad Rap
gengberg September 27th, 2009
We all dream about catching the big one, but only a few of us catch the biggest one ever. The man smiling and holding up the biggest brown trout ever is Tom Healy, a retired contractor from Rockford, Michigan.
Healy and friend Bob Woodhouse were going after King salmon, with guide Tim Roller, on Michigan’s Big Manistee River, on Sept. 9, 2009. They were casting away, hoping for a nice, quiet day on the water, said Healy. But his life changed when the king of all brown trout bit his silver number 8 Shad Rap.
For the next 15 minutes, it was touch and go, as the monster flirted with numerous log jams and other possible line-tangling obstacles. At one point, the fish tried to jump, but its sheer mass kept it in the surface film, where it thrashed around before going back down.
Roller, who has guided Healy for 15 years, slid the net around the catch when the lucky fisherman steered his prize boatside.
On a certified scale, Healy’s fish weighed 41 pounds, 7.25 ounces. It had a 43-inch girth.
It has already been certified as the Michigan state record, and papers are being filed to have it certified as the new All-Tackle World Record. (The existing All-Tackle World Record brown trout was caught in 1992 from the Little Red River in Arkansas. That fish, caught by Howard Collins, weighed 40 pounds, 4 ounces.)
Healy’s catch is the latest in a long string of world records taken on Rapala lures. We are proud to say that Rapala holds the world record for world records, and we know how a fish like this can add an exclamation point to a lifetime of memories.
“Anyone could have caught this fish,” said Roller, “but the right man did.” It feels good when the fishing gods smile down upon the right guy.
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