Bob Parker of Highland, Calif., wrote the other day, asking if his name
still was on Minnesota's big-fish record list.

I looked, and sure enough it's still there. Lordy, it oughta be
in lights, the name. He's the catcher of the state-record bluegill, 2
pounds, 13 ounces.

Do you know what that means?

A piscatorial hero lives!

Parker may be the most envied angler in all of Minnesota. Some of
us may be awed by mighty muskies, hefty walleyes or even plump perch.
But everybody who ever has wet a fishing line would pick rotten
nightcrawlers for a chance to waylay such a slab of fish.

Imagine, a sunfish 3 ounces shy of 3 pounds. What a saucer! Be
like catching a dinner plate with lips.
The details, Parker! Give us the details!

"You know, I really don't remember much about it," he said by
phone. "I do remember thinking I had snagged something sideways. Back
then, it wasn't a big deal."

Back then is 1948.

Parker was 27, home from a world war and working in a Bemidji
bank.

"We were staying at Lake George but fishing on Lake Alice that
day," he said.

"I was using worms."

Of course, worms. What else? A perfect bait. Everybody knows
bluegills love worms.

"I think we caught a few bass and crappies, too," Parker said of
the day's outing.

Memories of the bobber going down - that exact moment when
Minnesota's most cherished catch took the bait - have faded with the
years, however.

Parker, who was raised in Wadena, Minn., is 65. He moved out
of Minnesota 37 years ago, shortly after making the record catch, and
eventually settled in California. Parker is retired and owns a gift
shop in Highland.

Other details also are missing. For example, the day the record
bluegill was caught remains unknown. Department of Natural Resources
records indicate only the year. And Parker said he can't remember for
sure.

"I didn't even enter the fish," he said. "Somebody else did."

Indeed, DNR files indicate a feature in the Minneapolis Tribune,
called the "Fisherman's Scoreboard," listed the bluegill lunker. Later
it was recognized as the state record.

The newspaper's records show the fish first was mentioned in the
Aug. 1 edition, indicating the bluegill was caught the last week of
July 1948.

Parker said he believes the bluegill also was displayed in the
window of Fuller's Tackle in Park Rapids.

Oh, what a sight in the window, a bluegill the size of a 15-inch
pie plate. Other anglers must have paused and gawked in wonder and
amazement.

Fisheries biologist Dave Pederson, who monitors the state fish
records for the DNR, said the length of the record fish also is
unknown.

But 15 inches or slightly more might be a good guess. The
Wisconsin bluegill record is 7 ounces lighter and measured 14 5/8
inches.

So what did Parker do with his treasured trophy?

"I know I didn't eat it," he said. "I think it was left with
Fuller's to be mounted."

Jerry Fuller, who was 13 at the time and working in his father's
tackle store, remembers the bluegill in the window.

"It was Hubbard County's claim to fame, its only record fish," he
said. "But I can't remember what happened to it."

There are several possibilities, however.

"My father (Earl Fuller) wasn't much for mounting fish but I don't
think we'd let it get away."

But it did.

And Parker isn't sure he can find a picture of the bluegill,
although some were taken.

"As fish go, it's not a hell of a big fish," he said.

Hell it ain't.