‘Matlacha’s Best Fisherwoman’
To the editor:
I want to tell you the story of the best fisherwoman in Matlacha. She has caught more fish than any woman in Matlacha, and rightly so, since she has been fishing there for more than 60 years. She is my wife, Mary Bentley.
In 1946, Mary’s grandfather, Ed Haubenreich, retired from his job with the L&N Railroad in Tennessee and moved to Matlacha, where he built a small cottage on Pine Island Road. A few years later, after Mary was born in Chattanooga, Tenn., her parents, who were school teachers, started taking her down there every summer. Her Grandpa Ed taught her how to catch everything from shrimp to tarpon in those “Golden Fishing Years” of the ’50s and ’60s. She became an expert fisherman with a perfect touch for catching speckled sea trout, along with the occasional red fish or snook.
After Grandpa Ed died, Mary’s father, also named Ed, took over the house and the title of “Matlacha Master Fisherman,” and continued to take fish from the waters of Matlacha for the next 30 something years. During that time, Mary was down there every year on her vacations, helping Pa Haubenreich catch those fish. I started coming down to Matlacha with Mary in the late 1980s, and learned how to catch those trout from Pa Haubenreich and Mary. One day in 1990, we caught more than 60 trout in about three hours.
About five years ago, the little house on Pine Island Road became Mary’s, and so did the title of “Matlacha Master Fisherman.” We get down there from Atlanta every chance we get, and soon we will be there most of the time during our retirement. Mary continues to catch those Matlacha trout. In September 2014 she caught 11 in two hours, including one which was 19 inches. She has been in the Pine Island Eagle on more than one occasion with pictures of her fish. In April 2013, she had her picture in the paper with a 36-inch snook she caught while fishing with Bill Russell.
Now, I am a better than average fisherman and catch my fair share of fish, but I am no match for the “Best Fisherwoman in Matlacha,” in fact, I call her, Mary “Big Fish” Bentley.
I guess I should add, “Most Fish” as well. After all she has had 60 years of practice and has caught thousands of Matlacha trout, which relates to thousands of hours of fun and excitement in Matlacha’s fishing paradise.
Norm Bentley