For the Martin family of Bangor, there’s nothing better on Memorial Day than spending time together with the extended family and enjoying some time outdoors, fishing rod in hand.
That’s exactly what they did on Monday when they visited Free Martin’s mother, Kathleen Hanson, at her house near Bangor. The gathering was not without respect for the solemnity of the holiday.
“Every year for Memorial Day my family and I celebrate by remembering those men and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country,” Free Martin said. “We also try to spend some quality family time doing a little fishing and enjoying the freedoms we have.”
Two of Free and Heidi Martin’s sons, 11-year-old Landon and Hunter, 9, have enjoyed wetting a line all of their young lives.
Everyone was excited about taking their maiden fishing voyage on the new pontoon boat.
“We figured we would break it in with some worm dirt and hopefully fish blood,” Free Martin said. “When we arrived at her house, the kids grabbed their fishing poles, tackle boxes and worms and ran toward the dock.”
As the boys fished and took a swim, the adults decided to have some lunch before heading out on the boat.
“While lunch was cooking we heard the boys getting pretty excited on the dock about something, so we went over to check it out while Gampa [Daniel Hanson] was cooking the burgers,” Free Martin said. “Landon and Hunter claimed that they saw a huge bass following in a sunfish they caught.”
Martin admits being a bit skeptical, thinking that perhaps the water hadn’t quite warmed up to the point where the fish were going to be biting in earnest.
That’s when Hunter hooked onto a sunfish and was slowly reeling it in. Out of the corner of his eye, Free Martin spotted what he called “a majestic beast” swimming toward the sunfish.
“I held the pole for a second to adjust the drag and then bang! That bass swallowed the sunfish and bolted toward the middle of the lake,” Free Martin said.
Hunter took care of the rest and got the bass back to the dock. It weighed 4 pounds, 14 ounces.
“The boys grabbed the net and the monster was secure,” Free Martin said. “It was a great catch and a very photogenic fish that was released for someone else to enjoy another day.”
Later, everyone climbed aboard the pontoon boat and inaugurated it with the aforementioned blood and worm dirt. Although the boys didn’t catch the fish they were looking for, Landon did put some white perch on the menu.
“But it did produce the memories,” Free Martin said. “The sky was cloudless and the water was chilly, but the kids could care less as they jumped and dove off the boat for hours.”
Editor’s note: Heidi Martin is an employee of Pulse Marketing, which is owned by the Bangor Daily News.
