Ever get outfished by the Missus? Tell us your stories...
I'll start......
The family rented a cottage down in SoCo last week and my wife and kids stayed down there for the week. I commuted back and forth most days but managed to fish a couple hours during early mornings or evenings almost every day for 8 days. I had a respectable week, landing over 50 fish of keeper size or better with the biggest fish at 33lbs. We'd planned on leaving Friday evening, so on Thurs night my wife Kim says, "I haven't fished with you in two years, I want to go in the morning." Thinking she'd decline for sure, I say, "okay hot shot, boat leaves at 4:30". She says, "hell yeah, I want to see the sun rise over the dunes and spend some quality alone time with you."
Sure enough, she pops up at the crack of 4 with me and we headed out into the sound around daybreak with a dozen big eels and the light boat rods. We pull into the first spot and I hook up a 20-something lb fish on the first drift and hand her the rod. She reels it in calmly as if she's caught a thousand of them and says, "eh, that's a little one, and I want to catch one all on my own".
So I give her the conventional eeling rod and off she goes to the bow, casting the TE400 like a pro 30-40 yds in the right direction. With no more bites at the first spot, we move on.
I say, "okay, we'll go to the big fish spot now, because apparently you're a professional, and since you haven't gone in 2 years, you'll probably get lucky and hook a big fish." We pull into a favorite reef of mine and set the lines. 50yds into the drift she quietly says, "I think I have one". I turn around to see her rod doubled over and line screaming off the reel. The fish didn't stop running until it had 75 yards ripped off, so excitedly I say, "that's acting like a really big fish." She stays cool as a cucumber and 10 minutes later, she drags this 47" 35lb'er to the side of the boat with no help whatsoever from me other than lipping it and landing it. It's by far her biggest ever, and it was high hook for the week. We took the pic below and slid the fish back into the water alive and kicking. We caught four other 15-20lb fish in the next hour and I set sail for home for breakfast with the kids, soundly outfished 4-2.
The captain did get a conciliatory smooch and an outstanding breakfast when we got back to the dock.
