By Allen Maxwell

My son, Carter, caught a nice fish at summer camp a couple of years ago. This is based on the "fish story" that he told us.

While the rest of his group fished for bream with cane poles and bread dough, Carter, a bass nut, spent his time each day throwing a Texas-rig motor-oil Power Worm. Each day, in their hour-long fishing period, the other kids would, as one might expect, catch five to 10 average-size bluegills apiece, and Carter, also as one might expect, would get one strike. Most days Carter"s single strike would yield him a one-and-a-half-pound bass. This went on for the first five days of camp, all parties quite satisfied with their respective results.

On the sixth day, things played out differently. The rest of the group caught their usual five to 10 bluegills, and Carter got his usual one strike. Carter, as usual, reeled down and set. It was at this point that events deviated from the established routine. When Carter struck, he didn't get that familiar "abrupt-stop-followed-by-a-lively-yet-all-too-brief-one-and-one-half-pound-bass-struggle." This time, he got that not so familiar "slow-soggy-feels-like-a-submerged-limb" pull that old-timers occasionally recognize as the mark of a bigger fish.

The fish rolled at the surface once and took off, probably with so much contempt at being hooked by one of those camp kids. At this stage of the fight, the fish was probably just annoyed, as if to say, "Great. Just great. Now I've gotta drag this kid's line out 'til it breaks, and then go get this stupid hook out of my mouth. That does it. From now on, I hang out on the other side of the pond."

Unfortunately for the fish Carter had re-lined his reel the week before with 14-pound test Stren, and was using one of his better reels, a Zebco 33 Special Edition with infinite anti-reverse, high-torque crank ratio and a ceramic spool pin. Carter's line held, as did his palomar knot. What can I say, the kid can fish.

According to Carter (and he does have witnesses), the fish jumped seven times (it tail-walked twice) before he got it to the bank. His counselor, trying to help, asked "What do you want me to do?" at which point Carter did not hesitate to shout that phrase we all know so well and hope to use so much more often than we do:

"Get the net!"

The counselor returned with the net just as Carter brought the fish in close, and tragedy nearly struck as the counselor attempted to tail net the fish, which, now in close proximity, clearly rivaled Carter"s leg in terms of length. Carter stopped him in time and politely said, "no, no. Here, you hold my rod, I'll net him myself." Not IFGA protocol in the strict sense, but hey, stuff happens. Carter netted the fish head first and promptly escorted the fish, and the counselor holding his rod, a conservative distance away from the water's edge before removing the hook from the fish or the fish from the net. Later, when he telephoned to convey the news (and confirm for Mrs. McBride his assertion that his dad would most surely let him mount this one), I asked him just how far he moved away from the bank before he unhooked that fish. His answered, "about 100 feet." That's my boy.

Now when my wife has the ladies over for bridge or coffee, I occasionally hear a conversation that goes something like this: "Carter, your mother told me you're a big fisherman." "Yes Ma'am. Would you like to see the fish I caught last summer at camp? It's pretty good-sized; we had it mounted." "Well, isn't that cute! Certainly, Carter! Let's go see it." A brief silence, followed by a startled, "Oh dear! That really IS a big fish ... Oh, my word."

Congratulations, Carter. Not many people in this world ever catch a largemouth bass that big. He's already busy trying to catch a bigger one. And I am proud to have helped him "catch the fishing bug," and wish him many happy years in his efforts.

Camp Mac is a summer camp located on the edge of the Talladega National Forest. It has been owned and operated by the McBride Family for more than 50 years, and is host to hundreds of school-age children annually. There are two 40-acre private ponds on the Camp Mac Property, which are used, in addition to fishing, for swimming, boating, water sports and water safety education.