I came across an interesting public radio station serving lower Michigan and it is Interlochen Public Radio which is home territory for the Great Manistee! I have heard several stories of great fishing in the Manistee, even met one fisherman who had Manistee for his license number, but the story below from IPR tops them all.
What may be the world's largest brown trout was caught Wednesday on the Manistee River. Tom Healy landed a 41 lb 7 oz fish. That's a pound heavier than the current world record. State biologists verified the weight and declared it the new state record. Healy was fishing with a guide from Cadillac, Tim Roller.
Roller says they have all the documentation to register the fish and claim the world record. He expects the attention to drive a lot of anglers to the Manistee area.
"But They need to know they're not going to catch a forty pound brown trout," says Roller.
He says the brown trout is the only sportfish that Michigan could catch the world record. He says salmon, lake trout and steelhead all grow much larger in other regions.