Brown Trout Festival fishing has been steady so far, officials say
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Ernie Butterfield holds up a contestant for heaviest lake trout as a festival attendee stares in disbelief.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Ernie Butterfield cuts off a part of a lake trout’s tail to avoid any repeats of fish so there is no instance of recalling the same fish.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Kelsey Macneill holds up a king salmon before weighing it.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Kelsey Macneill (left) and Ernie Butterfield (right) debate on the kind of fish she is holding before calling it out.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca A tub sits by the weigh-in station for keeping track of the large amounts of fish a participant has caught so it is easier to account for. Fishermen empty the tub back in their coolers once the fish have been weighed.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca A lake trout is placed on the scale to be weighed for the fishing tournament for the Brown Trout Festival.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Before the flood of fishermen arrive at 8 p.m., the table for recording the weights of fish for the tournament review the weights that have already been called to ensure they are correct.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Ernie Butterfield holds up a lake trout from one of the fishermen and calls out its weight to the people recording the numbers for the tournament.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Ernie Butterfield holds up a contestant for heaviest lake trout as a festival attendee stares in disbelief.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Ernie Butterfield cuts off a part of a lake trout’s tail to avoid any repeats of fish so there is no instance of recalling the same fish.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Kelsey Macneill holds up a king salmon before weighing it.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Kelsey Macneill (left) and Ernie Butterfield (right) debate on the kind of fish she is holding before calling it out.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca A tub sits by the weigh-in station for keeping track of the large amounts of fish a participant has caught so it is easier to account for. Fishermen empty the tub back in their coolers once the fish have been weighed.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca A lake trout is placed on the scale to be weighed for the fishing tournament for the Brown Trout Festival.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Before the flood of fishermen arrive at 8 p.m., the table for recording the weights of fish for the tournament review the weights that have already been called to ensure they are correct.
News Photo by Zipporah Abarca Ernie Butterfield holds up a lake trout from one of the fishermen and calls out its weight to the people recording the numbers for the tournament.
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ALPENA -- A double rainbow shone amidst the dark skies as people sat under the tents at the Michigan Brown Trout Festival listening to a band performing and waited for the fishermen to return from their 14-hour voyage on Lake Huron.
Fishermen had slowly rolled in around 8 p.m. before the 9 p.m. deadline to have fish weighed for the tournament. It wasn't until about 8:30 p.m. when a line was formed of coolers and expectant faces as they watched the fishermen in front of them having their walleyes, steelhead, salmon, brown trout and lakers weighed.
Ernie Butterfield, weigh master and fish doctor, and Kelsey Macneill, Brown Trout secretary, have been working at the weigh-in station this year.
Butterfield described the competition of the tournament.
"There is a group of people that always sees who can catch the biggest browns, or who can catch the biggest salmon and they butt heads," he said. "But I mean it's all fun, it's good."
Looking at the tournament's leaderboard, Terry McConnell is currently in the lead for the brown trout category at 9.90 pounds, which is 3.65 heavier than last year. In the lake trout category, Randy Klein leads the way with a 18.45 pound catch, which is 7.55 pounds lighter than last year.
As for salmon, Jon Wieczorkowski leads with a 21.15 pound fish - 5.6 pounds lighter than last year. David Brege is currently in first place for steelhead with a 9.2 pound catch, making it 1.15 pounds lighter than last year. For walleye, Jackie Oliver leads with a 10.05 pound catch, which is 1.15 pounds heavier than last year.
Monday's tournament began at 6 a.m. for those participating in the fishing competition and was expanded to Presque Isle County this year. That meant fishermen were able to set out on the waters from Presque Isle County docks - expanding the area for fishing.
The turnout for fishing this year has been "really good ... [with] decent sized fish - better than the previous," Butterfield said.
Seems pretty good, everybody has been out," he said. "[There were 227] fish the first day, 227 fish yesterday -- which was a shocker -- and I don't know what we have today, but I know my hands are all cut up."
Macneill said with the recent storms the fishing on Monday, compared to previous days, was down.
"The weather wasn't very cooperative," she said. "We went out this morning and the waves were horrendous. ... Still waiting on quite a few highstakes boats, so hopefully they come in."
When discussing Sunday's fishing, Butterfield said he could not believe the turnout they had with the downpour.
However, on Monday with less of a turnout for fishermen compared to other days, the weather seemed to be a challenge for the 16 boats that went out.
A fisherman from Escanaba, Craig Niedbala, said he went out at 8 a.m. with his family to begin fishing and didn't return until about 8 p.m. He said it was a lot of fun, especially when they caught a king salmon after catching 12 lake trout.
When asked about the weather's effects on his family's fishing trip, he said it was "pretty rough out there."
"But it kind of actually calmed down this afternoon so it was pretty pleasant on our run back...," Niedbala said.
Alpena resident and fisherman David Brege, who was sponsored by HBC Credit Union and Propane Plus, agreed that it has been "pretty tough" with the weather's influences on the fish.
"Right about two weeks leading up to the tournament, it was one of the best starts to the season I've ever seen. We were catching steelhead in good numbers - big steelhead, a lot of salmon.
I mean, it was just really good fishing. And then not so much the past couple days. But we've been able to pull steelhead out of our pockets each day and it's worked out."
Brege is currently in the lead in the steelhead category of the tournament with a 9.2 pound steelhead he caught on Sunday.
"That's the best fish we caught all weekend," he said. "Today we caught a 6.3 -- two fish each day is all we brought in."
When asked if there have been any notable differences between this year and the previous with fishing for the festival, Brege said it has been normal.
The last day of the fishing tournament will be July 23.
This story was produced as part of the Michigan News Group Internship. Zipporah Abarca is working for WCMU this summer at The Alpena News.