Posted on 12/16/2009 4:30:10 AM PST by SJackson
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.
TB, 19 is a rabbit, not a fish.
Sushi’s on!
Why?
So that the next guy can catch and KEEP, and take it home and eat it?
We're talking rural Michigan, folks. Gotta live here to know the area. No "country gentlemen" to be found in hip waders and tweed sportscoat wading the placid streams. Nope. This is the home of backwoods snaggers, deer-baiters (and poachers), etc., etc., etc.
If you're gonna do a "catch and release" you might as well be merciful to the poor fish, and club him on the head before "releasing" him to the first rusty pickup truck you see, cuz that's where he's gonna end up anyway.
(Once the "sportsmen" know he's there, they'll "bait" him out with weighted snagging hooks or whatever it takes to "catch" the fish.)
No, I don't have a lot of respect for many of the people that live around me. So what? If I did have a more naive view, I'd probably be a statistic, prey to the SOB who I found casing my uber-rural homestead at three in the morning, who coughed up some cock and bull story about wanting in to use my phone because his car broke down (conveniently, right in front of my house, under the tree shaded from the yard light). Odd, how it suddenly got started pronto when I went outside with a flashlight and .45, go figure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.