In the 1800s, South American oscars were brought to this country as entertainment slaves to be held captive in people's homes in glass bowls. Their only purpose? Cat television. Currently the oscar is the predominate fish in the Florida Everglades. There is some debate as to how it got there, but it probably escaped from a tropical fish farm. The other possibility is that a breeding age pair of oscars acquired their freedom when some aquarium owner got tired of his hobby and released them, hoping they would start a new life. And they did.

Before the oscar arrived in these waters, largemouth bass were the local stars. The bass are still there, but the oscar is the more aggressive fish, bringing the bass down a notch in the food chain pecking order. The bass aren't as big or as plentiful as they once were. Since my son's oscar fought so well and since I had read about these wild oscars, I arranged a fishing trip near Ft Lauderdale in one of the Everglades canals. My fishing guide, Jack Allen, took me to some of his secret fishing holes.

Jack fished for largemouth bass while I fished for oscars. He fished with a fly rod using poppers handmade from pieces of Styrofoam he'd found floating on the canals on his previous fishing trips. He caught lots of bass, one after another, but the biggest was under two pounds. I fished for oscars, which came in just under a pound.

Every time I caught an oscar, Jack said, "All right!" or, "Good going!" or some other positive exclamation. Guides are supposed to do that, so you go home and remember you caught fish and tell your friends about the experience, so they, too, will hire the guide, supporting his fishing sickness. Anyway, Jack praised me every time I got a fish, and I got a lot of praise because I got a lot of fish. But every time Jack caught an oscar it was a different story. "Another inevitable oscar," he'd say, because Jack doesn't like oscars.

I think if I hadn't been there, the process of catch and release would have been catch and destroy. I had this image of him stuffing the oscars with a little sticks of time-delayed TNT before he released them. He said something about how they would make good clay pigeons.

Oscars aren't rough fish, they're just something few people are aware of. Oscars are good eating. They are one of the most popular freshwater fish in the world, but not in the USA, because they are new here and few people are aware of them. We found other boats with people fishing for oscars, but not many.

If you ever want to fish for oscars, I suggest you go to the Florida Everglades and use your ultralight spinning rod with the smallest beetle spin you can find. It works, I know. Fun? And how! This fish fights like Mike Tyson. And there won't be a lot of boats pulling up next to yours when they see you pulling in your limit. The fish are everywhere, and the fishermen are few and miles between.

Oh! About Jack Allen, my fishing guide: Earlier in the day, when we were putting the boat in the water, Jack informed me he had an afternoon client, so he would fish with me for only half the day. I've wondered about fishing guides and whether they fish to make money or whether they make money so they can fish. The answer came when quitting time arrived. Jack did the "one more cast" routine for half an hour. I haven't talked to him since our outing, but I'll bet he was late for work.

Larry Stark grew up in St. Joseph, Michigan, and enrolled in U-M's art school after a brief career as an accountant. His photographs and prints have been exhibited and collected throughout the country. He and his wife, Barbara Benson Stark, live in St. Paul, Minnesota, and have five children.