Robert Tomes

It’s been said; a mother’s unconditional love is the most a son can ever hope for. And if you’re really lucky, that love endures in a million different ways throughout all the stages of life. In my case, I have a photo to prove it.

It’s the early ‘70s on a lake near in northern Wisconsin, “Musky Capital of the World.” I’m a cocky, teen age version of myself standing next to my glamorous, bell-bottomed, adoring mother and holding my first legal muskie caught earlier that day - an indelible experience that changed my life forever and, coincidentally, was the first time I’d ever fished for the elusive “fish of ten thousand casts.”

As was the practice back in the day, my guide Earl bopped it on the head as soon I landed it to be ceremoniously shown off at the dock, then in town for tourists to gawk at - on ice in a glass-top cooler - and eventually mounted to hang on my wall.

The moment captured in this image lives on with my mother and me forever. Now in her 90s, she keeps this framed photo on her nightstand and never fails to recount that great day we shared together so long ago.

But her influence on my future goes well beyond that moment. A fashion model and writer in her day, she taught me the value of the written word - along with the patience and persistence required for writing and fishing - by believing in who I was then and what I would become. Without my mother’s love, none of this would have been possible. And as much as I enjoyed the thrill of catching that first muskie, it’s my mother’s beaming smile of support captured in this image that is better than any fish I will ever catch.