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Wife usually has the day off on Friday’s . But on this Friday, she needed to meet with a doctor at 12:00 noon to discuss work related stuff. But she say’s, “I wish I could go fishing!. I just don’t think there is enough time”. WHAT…..HuH??. Ummmm, hold that thought, there is plenty of time. Really she responds?. We can make it happen.
She is up at 4:30am, and I am up and shaking a leg at 5:30 ish. I knew she was doing work related stuff, not getting ready for fishing. I load the boat, and we are at the ramp at 7am. Lines in the water at 7:20. Same gear as previous day’s. Except both leaders have been retied, due to line breakage. From fish winding themselves up, while in the net and snapping her and my leader the day before.
20 minutes into our troll, and we slow to check, clean and deploy gear. I reel my stuff in first, downrigger cable is pretty much straight down. The wife proclaims from her seated position at the bow area of the boat “My pole is doing something funny!”. Knowing Salmon don’t hit gear when it is NOT moving, I glance over. “Sun of a gun, that is a fish…..unbelievable!” She launches from her perch, and plays a jumping Salmon to within 10ft of the boat and stops reeling. I ask her to back up, so I have room to wield the fish net handle around when needed. She does so, net is at the ready. Fish is not getting any closer, I look back and she has frozen in time, stopped reeling. Apparently the net handle is 10 ft longer than it is, cause she thinks I can reach it. Fish thrashes free at the surface, comes unbuttoned!. Wifee is PO’d, very disappointed. We have a general exchange of pleasantries, discussing the importance “reeling plays” in the “netting” and eventual 'catching" of the “fish!”. I say, the fish was on the smallish side and you would likely have wanted to release it.
An hour passes, a few nets fly. Another 45 minutes passes. Wife asks if the speed is right and why I am adjusting that so much? Trying to trigger a bite, I respond. At this point I am taking in the sights and excepting that the last few days were a “good run”….....................LOL!
From the best seat in the boat, I hear “My pole is doing something funny!” and yours is too! What? What did I miss? She flies to her pole and is reeling like she means business, probably cause she does...LOL! I can see her reel handle is turning but the spool is not. This could be a descent fish, but keep this information to myself in the event it does not make it to the boat. Wifee say’s I think we are tangled! I throttle up the kicker a touch, cause I am adding tension to my pole that remains in the holder, which also has a fish on it. Normally I would net the fish at one time so there is two fish in it at once. But not wanting to implement this fire drill, this being the wifee’s first time. We attempt to net her fish first. But she locks up again, reeling stops, net handle is no longer than when it was last used. Her fish is gone! She is so disappointed that her pole tip dips into the water and stairs at the swirl at the surface. Where the fish turned and high tailed with a splash and headed in the opposite direction.
I look at her dejected look, when she say’s “ I would have had a limit!” Yup, I say as I hand her my rod. Which she had forgotten had a fish on it. Had to hook 4 fish before one made it to the cooler. We deploy our gear, but not before asking the question “ how deep would you like your gear….dear?” And she asked “weren’t we over there when we had the double header?” I respond “Yep, what do you say we head that way?” Happy with the heading. 10 minutes later, from the direction of the bow of the boat an announcement is made “we both have a fish on. Followed by I wonder if we are tangled!” Same scenario as before. Increase kicker speed, net her fish. Hand here my pole and there is a descent shaker helicoptering in on the surface. Released and swimming strong. With the flurry over, I am bleeding the fresh catch in the cooler and hear the wife’s purdy voice asking “what are you doing with the fish?”, as the kicker motor is fighting the wind and singing in my ears. I say “bleeding the fish”. She asks the same question again. This time I turn to look at her, she is pointing at my pole saying “you have a fish!”.
Fourth fish in the cooler, a kiss and pat on the rump later. She steers the boat back to the ramp, as I put the gear away. It is now 9:00am and the plan was to fish no later than 9:30 to meet here commitment.
What a well oiled machine we are, just 2 days later. Vocabulary is slowly changing too. What once was “my pole is doing something funny”. Has migrated too “ I think I have a fish, and you do too!” She is watching the rods like a hawk. Even exclaiming “I got one!”…………no, guess it’s nothing……….LOL! Hangin with the wife is a good time. After she limited, and did so first. I was super happy for her.
Today’s catch weighted 18lb-2oz. 8 fillet’s weight was 10lb-9oz. Two fish lost, one shaker released, and I think she wants to go out again, this weekend………WHAT?
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