By DON DUBUC

Few columns have gotten more reaction than the story I wrote last Mother’s Day. So for those sportsmen and sportswomen who may have missed this tribute to our moms, here it is.

Most moms will be treated to dinner, candy, flowers and other typical Mother’s Day gifts today. A few will even be invited on a fishing trip. And when you think about it, do they ever deserve it.

In case you have not noticed fishing is not just for guys anymore.

Roughly 13 million women or a third of all anglers now fish. That is a far cry from the days when dads worked all week, went fishing or hunting on the weekends while the stay-at-home moms allowed them to take us kids.

“Fishing is the least discriminating sport in the world,” said Kathy Magers, a 20-year pro angler. “No one is prevented from doing it. Most of all we can still be ‘ladies’ and enjoy this sport.”

Magers credits her grandfather for teaching her the basics but said it was her mother that became her fishing buddy spending time together away from telephones, barking dogs and housework.

Another modern day fishing mom is Heather Hoyer of Great Falls, Mont.

She balances teaching seventh-grade science with taking her two young daughters fishing. She believes so strongly in the power of fishing that she sponsors a fishing club in her school.

Her 24-student club, and many of the children have no other opportunity to fish, includes seven girls.

“Fishing has just always been a part of family and teaching philosophy. It just seemed logical to utilize fishing curriculum with my students,” Hoyer said.

Things sure have changed. My mom fished very rarely even though she enjoyed hooking a speckled trout or a flounder from the pier during the few chances she had to go.

What she did do, was to raise seven kids, full time. She washed and mended our clothes, prepared every meal, nursed us through all those kid-type sicknesses, made sure we got up and off to school, helped with homework and let us know when we did the right things as well as the wrong things.

And she helped us handle the tough pains of growing up. Dads always got the credit for getting kids started in a lifetime affair with the outdoors. But it was our moms who helped make it happen.

She worried about us every time we went hunting but never tried to talk us out of going. Even though she never enjoyed it herself, mom would never refuse to cook the squirrels, rabbits and venison or fry up the fish we would pile up on the kitchen table. I remember once when I was 9 or 10 proudly coming home with a bucket of crawfish hardly big enough for bait. Instead of telling me to get those things out of her house, she boiled and helped peel every one assuring me that even though they were small they were really good.

She cleaned up muddy, fish-slimed and bloodstained clothes and never complained about the array of our live, wild trophies we would bring home. Snakes, lizards, frogs, turtles, possums and armadillos were a few of the creatures she endured. Sound familiar?

Most of all wherever we were, we always knew there was someone back home who loved us and was waiting to bandage our cuts and scrapes, cheer our successes and help us get over our failures.

So how can we possibly repay our moms for their tireless devotion and long years of endless, self-sacrifice and love? No amount of cards, candy, flowers, dinner or gifts can ever express the thanks our moms deserve. And neither is that what they expect or really want.

A hug, a kiss and the knowledge they have made us happy and successful is all a loving mother really hopes for. And boy, do they ever deserve it.

DON DUBUC is the outdoors reporter for L’Observateur.