It's always fun to hear about a young boy's first lunker, like Annie O'Shaughnessy's student Elvis B...

Elvis B-wary

When I was seven years old, before I started fly fishing, I started bait fishing.

One time, a fish bit my line, and I couldn’t crank the reel to pull the fish in. I yelled to my dad “I got a fish!”

“You’re line is stuck on a log, silly" he replied. "Open the bail and let some line out to unhook it.”

Before he could finish talking, my line started screaming off the reel. This got my dad’s attention, and he ran over and said, “Don’t just stand there! Reel that fish in!”

I had been standing there speechless with my mouth open. So…I began reeling in as fast as I could. After ten minutes, I was tired but determined to land my first big fish. My dad brought over our net – barely big enough to hold a perch – and tried to get it under the big fish.

Amazingly, the net held, and we landed what turned out to be a very large 7-pound smallmouth bass.

I will never forget my first big fish. Boy, was my dad surprised. He never doubted me again!