The Catch Of Day

The Catch of the Day was inspired by a 1995 newspaper article about a man who lost his dentures overboard while on a fishing trip in the Netherlands. In 1998, I submitted my story to Oceana Magazine's eighth annual short story contest, The Write Stuff, and received honorable mention. It was later published in Pen In Hand, The Biannual Literary Journal of the Maryland Writers' Association, January 2021, edited by Dr. Tapendu K. Basu. The story is about a boy who goes striper (or rockfish or striped bass) fishing with his father and grandfather. The grandfather coughs up his dentures overboard, where a striper swallows them. The young boy reels in the very striper that swallowed the dentures, which the father finds when gutting the prize-winning fish.