Landing the World Record Brown Trout - How Did He Do It?
When Howard "Rip" Collins of Heber Springs, Arkansas was pulling in his line while fishing on May 5, 1992, I'm sure he was not expecting to reel in the fish of a lifetime - a world record brown trout. Sure, he wanted a big fish just as every angler does, but he certainly didn't know he was about to catch a world record brown trout.
The fish Rip Collins pulled in was a German brown trout weighing in at a remarkable 40 pounds and four ounces. It was a world record brown trout if there ever was one, and the funny thing is he pulled it in using ultralight fishing tackle. This trout was anything but ultralight!
Prior to Rip Collins catching the world record brown trout, this accomplishment belonged to Huey Manley of North Little Rock, Arkansas, when he landed a trout weighing 38 pounds and nine ounces, and measuring 41 inches long! The funny thing about Huey Manley's trout story is that the night began as a bust.
Huey Manley headed down to the dock to take a boat out fishing, and the dock was closed, so no boat. He decided to just fish off the dock with his buddies even though, disappointingly, they hadn't brought any worms, their favorite . Huey found some corn on the dock, and little did he know it was going to land him a world record brown trout.
Huey's first hit with the corn was the beginning of his adventure. He fought with that fish for more than half an hour before he was able to land the world record brown trout. Unprepared for such a big fish, he and his buddies were challenged getting it out of the water. When it was finally close enough to net, the trout simply bent the aluminum frame of the net.
Once they finally landed the world record brown trout, just getting it weighed was an issue because none of their scales went that high. A trip to the local grocery store in the middle of the night verified what they knew - Huey had landed a new world record brown trout.
Landing a world record brown trout is something we all dream about, or even a world record any fish. Until then, we can enjoy the stories of Rip and Huey.
