Editor’s Note: After compiling some of the best fish stories from our female fishing fans over the last month or so, FLWOutdoors.com is finally ready to share them with the public. For the next several weeks, we’ll feature a different submission every week, with articles being posted on Mondays. To be sure, the stories submitted by our readers have been most impressive as well – ranging from the truly humorous to the utterly heartbreaking. We hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we did. And hopefully, as more and more women get involved in the wonderful sport of fishing, we’ll get to read and hear about many more stories from our female fans in the future. Enjoy.
Bernadine Ayres
St. Helen, Mich.
Wife lands the one that got away
I believe my most zany fishing experience happened last summer. It began as another warm day, and what better way to fight the heat than take to the lake?
Luckily we live only a mile and a half to the nearest lake, so I grabbed a couple bottles of water and out the door we went. My husband and I each have a favorite lure; he uses his yellow, and me my green one. Same brand, just different colors. He calls his “ole yeller” and I call mine “ole green.”
We had been trolling for a couple hours, pulled in some small pike and were hoping for a nice walleye as we continued to troll. This lake is made up of three lakes all hooked together. We launched in the first lake, fished there for a while and then scooted over to the far side of the second lake.
We had been fishing for a couple hours when my husband said, “Get the net, this one is a honker.” So there I stood poised, net in hand, as he fought the fish. I could tell by the bend of the rod and the way his line kept taking off that this truly was a giant. He fought that fish for what seemed like quite a while but didn’t seem to be gaining much. I tried to give him encouragement as I stood with the net.
He almost had it to the boat, and then his line snapped! Oh no. The fish and his ole yeller were gone – back into the lake. We never did get a good look at the fish, but we knew it was huge. Luckily for him, he had another of his favorite lure, so he fixed his line and was back in business before very long.
He said, “Let’s go back to first lake and try there again.” That was OK with me, so I brought in my lines, secured myself and poles, and we took off again for the first lake. We fished there a few more hours, and nothing happened. I could tell that the big fish was weighing on his mind, and he turned and said, “Let’s head back over to the place where that hog was.”
Back across the lake we went again. It was starting to get closer to evening, and I was glad I brought my jacket. I needed it now as the wind kicked up a bit. Our water bottles were empty, and the licorice that I found in my rod locker was gone. I was getting ready to call it a day, but thought, “Oh well, maybe we can find something over there once more.”
My ole green hit the water, and I began humming away, watching the clouds moving. It almost put me into a nap mode, then I felt the jerk, and I mean jerk! “I got a honker,” I said as I began pulling in some line. My husband just watched me for a minute, as if he were thinking, “Sure, I bet you do.” But finally he realized I really did have something on my line, and he grabbed the net. I fought that guy hard and kept turning my crank, pulling my rod up for slack, and turning it some more. I wanted to pull him in easy; no line breaking for me. I kept making a little headway each time, and pretty soon I saw him hit the water.
Yes, he was huge! As he got closer to the boat, husband dear dipped the net down to get him. He was almost was too big for the net – wow! We flopped him in the boat, and what do you think we saw? I had hooked him, all right, with my good old faithful green, but hanging in his mouth was ole yeller! We measured it, and it was a 37-inch pike that weighed in at 14 pounds.
We did the CPR routine, “Catch, Picture, Release.” We just couldn’t keep that guy; we called him the Lake Legend because he must have been around a long time. It was time to go now, and we had a great time. We even had some in the livewell for supper, so we were happy.
I sure enjoyed telling everyone about that day fishing. He lost it, but I brought it in.
I really enjoy fishing with my husband. This year we will be fishing tournaments together as a husband-wife team. We are hoping that we can encourage more couples to fish together. A day on the water together is a great day, zany or not.