“Big Brownie” from the Brown Trout Festival, in Alpena Michigan was getting to the point where it was as elusive as the lochness monster. Going into the 43rd year of the festival Big Brownie had not been caught and was only found dead on shore a couple of times for a 50 dollar reward. Many people still compete for Big Brownie because of the 25,000 dollar prize you get from catching the elusive fish. Robert Westenbarger is one of those people. Rob has been fishing the festival since 1990 and during this time he has gained around 15 placements on the leader board. In 2005 he had Jan Stepanski join him in the festival and she loved it. Every year since Rob and Jan have set out to compete to get the biggest brown trout that they could. They continued to compete, but then they hit their hardest year of the festival, 2016.
Throughout the 2016 festival not one brown trout was caught in the entire festival which was very worrisome to the annual duo because the Brown Trout competition is the only part of the Brown Trout Festival that they compete in. Since they both love to be out on Lake Huron fishing, Rob and Jan easily decided that they were going to compete in next years 2017 festival.
On the first day Rob managed to get a placement in the festival. He caught the biggest brown trout of the festival that year, but it wasn’t Big Brownie. They kept fishing and then July 18th hit. They woke up, got the boat ready, and headed out to the water. Rob and Jan got out on the water from the local harbor early that morning ready to fish with the hope to get another big brown trout, but little do they know they were about to catch the local lochness monster.
The duo headed out about 3 miles from shore with their trusty boat named “Rusty Hook” and set up. They got planer boards into the water and began to troll around the bay. Around 9:15 am they noticed they had a fish on. Filled with excitement the pair jumped into action. Rob went over and set the line and then handed the pole over to Jan to reel in the fish. Jan managed to get the fish close to the boat to where they could see the fish. Then they saw what every fisherman out in the bay was looking for:The bright orange tag. Immediately, Jan and Rob got filled with joy and could not wait to have that 25,000 dollar prize. Jan kept reeling while Rob grabbed the net. Finally with one scoop they had Big Brownie in their hands.
Right after they secured Big Brownie the duo decided to pack up and head back to show off their “impossible” catch. When they arrived back to the festival everyone's jaws hit the floor because nobody could believe that they caught “Big Brownie.” On this day, Jan and Rob made history in the Brown Trout Festival and within the small, beautiful, old town of Alpena, Michigan.
Story written by:Tanner Hatch, Alpena High School-Science in the Sanctuary.
Sources:
Stepanski, Jan-Westenbarger,Robert. Personal interview. May 22, 2019
Big Brownie caught: Local pair catches first tagged fish during festival, The Alpena News, 7.19.2017 (including photo credit to Diane Speer for image used here from this The Alpena News story)