Looking back at it, they must have thought I was crazy. Or maybe not. Being a kid meant you could get away with crazy things. I remember the covert laughs the other fisherman were hiding as they walked by me on the portage away from the lake that I caught my big bass in. At least it was big to me. Another thing kids can get away with.
Some friends had asked dad and I to go fishing in this remote lake to the north. It was full of largemouth bass and long stinky weeds. We were fishing from canoes with our $7.00 dollar, silver, cotton cordell rattlin’ spots. Dad directed the bow of our canoe toward a beaver house that had snag written all over it. I casted the silver lure just off the base of it and started rattling back toward me.
Wham!
A 3 pound bass started swimming off with it. With several swirls, jumps, and a screaming drag the battle ended quickly with the bass in the net. It looked huge to me and somehow when I suggested to dad if we could mount it-he agreed.
After clipping it onto the stringer we made our way back to the head of the portage (trail) to begin our journey back to the cars. Along the way, I would dip the bass in puddles that collected along the trail. I thought of it as some kind of primitive life support. This is why people laughed when they saw me. Dad took it in stride. He must have been slightly embarassed. He probably had seen bigger bait fish than the bass I had just caught. He let me have my day.
The taxidermist mounted it quickly within the month and soon it was hanging proudly on my wall. Beside it, on the same mount, was a penny that had been found in its stomach by the taxidermist.
Looking back now, I wonder what kind of change I could have gotten from a 12 pounder. I need to remember the name of that lake!
Bill Anderson
Musoka Outdoors
