One night we sat alone by the campfire. My mother and sister were asleep. It was peaceful sitting there, battling the mosquitoes, and listening to the water lapping against the shore. Daddy asked me if I wanted to go fishing. We could take the boat into open water. If we left the fire burning we could use it as a marker to ensure we did not stray to far from camp.

We decided to shut the motor off and just drift. He sat in the back of the boat and I was in the front. We had been fishing for about thirty minutes when something grabbed my line.

“I’ve got a bite!” I yelled.

“Reel it in,” he told me.

“I can’t!”

“Of course, you can!” He yelled at me. I was only about fifteen or sixteen years old and probably weighed about one hundred pounds.

I was holding the fishing pole with both hands and I was struggling to stay in the boat.

“I CAN’T!”

“Give me that thing!” his tone was angry. He jerked the pole out of my hands and realized immediately that he would not be able to reel in whatever was on the line.

He braced his feet on the sides of the boat and hung on while we went for a wild ride around the lake. It did not take long for our “fish” to drag us to the dam, approximately twenty miles from our campsite. We traveled at a high rate of speed. There was no moon only billions of stars.

We saw the lights of the dam and knew we were in trouble. If we did not get the outboard motor started and in reverse quickly we were going to crash. Daddy let go of the fishing pole. He was tired, his heart was over strained, and he was gasping for breath. We had to get that motor started. I tried, but my arms were not long enough to pull the start cord. He had to do it. Gasping for breath he pulled the cord. He could not pull it hard enough. Try again. Both of us pulled, together. Nothing. Again! Finally it caught he moved the lever to reverse and turned the motor hard to starboard. We barely missed the dam. The wave we created almost capsized our little boat.

Daddy lay in the bottom of the boat trying to recover while I tried to find the way back to camp. I probably went around in circles because I could not see anything. The first light of dawn he seemed to feel better and took over steering the boat. The sun was high in the sky when we returned to camp.

“Where have you been?” Mother demanded.

“Get Sue to tell you about our big fish. I’m going to bed,” Daddy told her.

We never went back to look for the fishing pole. Instead, we packed up and went home.

I never saw my fish. I was never sure exactly what had taken the bait on my line. I guess it was just “the big one that got away.”

©2008 Sue Fulton