My daughter talked my wife into going cat fishing with me!
She’s such a good daughter!
Now you have to know that Deb doesn’t like dark rivers, bugs, bats or fish that are bigger than sunfish. I didn’t think she would go, since I’ve asked her every night since ice out.
We made it to the backwaters early enough to go through where things were at in the boat (for finding after dark) and what to do if we were lucky enough to hook into a flathead. I told Niki that once she set the hook, if she wanted me to hold on to her I would, but that I wouldn’t take the rod. She laughed. We had a slight interuption in the instruction part of the trip because Deb saw a bat or two…(1st picture).
Our first snag sure seemed good, but after 45 minutes it was time to move one.
Our second snag was full of submerged branches. I was worried that if we did hook into something, it would be lost quickly to the under water wood. It too was a good looking spot and we took our chances. Then the clicker on the center rod when nuts! It was a fast run and I had Niki grap the rod and set the hook. Once the hook was set, Niki had a hard time keeeping the Medium Heavy rod in the air. I’m really not sure all that she said, but I know she was surprised at the power of the fish. The second picture is when the flathead was swimming towards her, giving her a short break. I kept asking her if she could feel the fish…becuase I was worried about getting snaged in the wood. Each time I would see the rod bend over and Niki would let out a groan in between hooting and hollering. She had about 60 feet of line out…but it took her a good 10 minutes to get this fish close to the boat.
My boat is 17 feet long…all this time Deb was 17 and one half feet away in the front of the boat manning the spot light. I have to admit, I was scratching my head when Deb started to tell Niki that she had the fish “close enough” to the boat. (It was still 15 feet away and we haven’t had a glimps yet) Once we got her in the boat, got the hook out and took some pictures (picture 3) we sent her back for other to catch. We did put it on my new scale…which I don’t think is too accurate. She came in at 11 lbs …I’m thinking more like 15, 16…but more on that later. It was at this time Niki figured out that when I told her that I would hold her that I wasn’t kidding. The rods, 10/0 hooks and 80 pound test line wasn’t just for show!
After a high five with Niki for successfully landing her first flathead, we got the lines back out to see if we could find on for Deb.
There was a good mayfly hatch which brought a lot of splashing on the surface fish…Niki and I thought that to be neat…Deb didn’t care for the noise or the mayflies too much…
It wasn’t long and the old clicker started going agian and this time it was Deb’s turn. She did well, but the closer the fish came to the boat….the farthur to the front of the boat she moved. We boated her with just a little screaming and shouting (on Deb’s part) then put her on the scale. 9 pounds…this is why I think the scale is off. If the fish in the last picture is 9, than Nikis fish was bigger than 11. It felt heavier than 11 pounds. Took a few pictures and got her back into the water.
We decided that 1 pm was late enough to fish and packed up and went home…On the way home my daughter said “thanks Dad, I’ll never forget that”…..It doesn’t get any better than that!
Oppps! Need to do some picture reformatting..Pictures coming later!
Next time we want to see those ladies hold the fish high. You will know you have them converted when they are baiting their own bullheads. Go gettum, buddy.
,I’m sure you have a better of a chance of them saying yes again 
. Nice fish!
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