Boy's Dream Comes True

Colton Lambert lands MD State record bass

A boy's dream came true when this 12 yr old fisherman landed a state record bass, 11lbs 6oz--some 4oz more the previous 30 year old record.  He had his father by his side to help him land the lunker, thought at first to be a snap before it bolted tearing off yards of line.  No fish story--he really caught it--but a fish story for sure as a memory maker for his life.

Our lives are made of stories, and many of them I am afraid that we try to throw back or just don't know what to do with them.  I was a high school soph in northern NJ and landed a 2.5 lb bass--a monster for me!  I still see the swirls under the tree limb, the perfect cast, and feel the fight.  Too bad I was not wise enough back then to let the fish go...as I was many more years later when I had this experience and penned these lines in Memphis:

Lunker Luck?

Was it just one of those gifts of the gods,

When every cast landed a lunker bass,

Bigger than anything I have ever caught

for forty years? Or nothing but dumb luck,

of the right place at the right time?  Maybe

it only matters that I threw them back,

knowing never to claim for my own,

what could only be the gift of a lifetime.