The day today started with my wife wanting to go fishing on the Croix. Since it was the first REAL nice Sunday…I knew there was going to be a ton of boat traffic making it a pain to be out there…unless you had a couple of hundred thousand dollars invested in a little cruiser. A 17 footer just isn’t fun to be in unless you stay in the no wake areas…then it’s just the congestion to put up with. So I worked on her to go out tonight catfishing on P3. Just a little remark here…one there and it finally worked…under one condition…she cooked tonight…which meant we were eating out.
Six pm found me looking for a parking spot in Prescott and shortly we were in Muddy Waters. Eye-Guide told me to try their smoked salmon…and it is…goooood!
So about 8 we’re on the water. Now my wife is like a lot of women, she doen’t like the dark (at all), bat’s, skeeters and she’s not too thrilled about the looks of a flathead either. I think it was the way she was brought up.
I promised to have her on the way home by 10:30, so I went to the old standby spot checked the cotten wood tree and it was available. Anchored and set up the four rods. Water was high and swinging the boat, so I tossed an anchor in the back too. It was still daylight. She didn’t seem to happy about being out there…and I told her the time goes by faster if we had converstation while waiting for a bit…she said she was watching for bats….I turn and checked the lines and when I turned back she had a jacket on with a hood…cinched down over her cap….and she ask if I brought the umbrella along. Didn’t look like rain to me…I said…no…I want to use it to keep the bats away..was the reply.
9:30 not a run. At 9:45 I notice that rod number 2 had a lot of slack line. In fact the line was dropping straight off the rod tip and swirling around in an eddie behind the boat. I told Deb this is it…assume the position! She picked up the rod and took in the slack while I pulled in a rod that was too close. Oooohhhh I can feel him! And she set the hook in a manner that would have stopped the Clydesdales in short order. It didn’t take too long to have the flat under the boat…after all he swam at least 75 feet closer to the boat undetected…but that was all he was going to let her have…easy. Somewhere in between the “I can’t hold on’s” the “help me’s” the “my back hurts” i watched the line head towards the back anchor rope. I told her to keep him out of the anchor rope…but this fish was having his way with her…all she could do was hold on and take in line once in a while. Sure as a cat love a bullhead, he wrapped around the anchor line….In watching, I don’t think there was anything she could have done to avoid this.
I was amaze we got it out of that mess…finally after roughly 15 minute this brute came to the boat. I recall last year asking Dirk if a person really needs a net for flatheads…his response was after the 30 mark it’s tough to lift them over the side of the boat when your alone… Glad I listened.
Couple of pictures, checked it on the digital scale…really tried to get my wife to hold it for pictures…but it wasn’t going to happen. Got one picture of her on the floor “close” to the flatty, but that’s all she was going to do.
Once she was back in the water, we relaxed for a few moments. I held out my hand for a 
handshake on a job well done…
opps, forgot to wipe the slime off…almost got the backhand…but I told her it was good for the skin…last time she’s going to shake my hand catten…I guess! Didn’t get to relax much…the other rod was going off….I didn’t even ask her if she wanted to bring it in…I just grabbed the rod and had my fish for the night lipped and in the boat. 7 pound bait fish compaired to her’s
It was 10:30 and it was hard to bring in the rods…but a deal is a deal. There was an aweful lot of talking on that side of the boat on the ride home…
I asked her if she saw any bats…Not a one…she said..not a one! 
Time to upgrade you scale brain looks like you will be breaking the fifty pounder range soon 
. Congrats to both of you on a fish of a lifetime! 
Deb, just tell him to stay home and 