Her biggest bigger than my biggest

[szopster]

Just wondering how many of you out there have been bested by your better half or girl friend when it comes to lifetime biggest walleye? My wife's 11 1/2 outdoes my 8 1/2 by three pounds. (She's got the Master Angler patch to boot.)

Anyone else out there man enough to admit a larger margin?

It would also be interesting to know what type of lure and what time of year the fish were caught. Hers was on a jig & minnow in October, mine was on a Gopher Bait Spin & minnow also in October.

She's actually has had me whupped with that 11 1/2 since the late 80's, don't know if I'll ever reclaim the belt. There's never been any competition, we always fish as a team. Only my buddies rib me about that big W she nailed.

Looking forward to other posts.

[JBL]

When my wife and I were first dating, she had to listen to my stories about the big Erie 'eyes I was catching. So I convinced her to go, and took her fishing two consecutive days out of Lorain, and darn if she didn't kick my tail including 4 'eyes over 29"!! I really tried hard to steal that "lucky" lure off her, but she is no fool.

Seems like most of the time she gets the big fish, if I were to catch 50 fish and she gets 5, she'll get the biggest one of the day. Used to aggravate me, but just funny anymore. I'm glad she likes to fish, and we still go together whenever Grandma will watch the kids. Kids are still too small for Erie, but someday they will go too.

Oh ya, she admitted later that before we went fishing she figured I was lying about catching those big fish...

[Pat W]

My story is similar except it isn't a walleye, but rather a large mouth bass. My friend, my wife and I were casting the shoreline of a larger lake near Minocqua, Wisconsin. My wife was along mostly for the day in the sun. I was outfitted with the latest and greatest equipment as was my friend. My wife, well she had her Zebco 44 mounted on a stout 5' rod wrapped with that rope or 40 lb mono they pre-spool at the factory.

My friend was casting his Zara Spook, I probably was casting a top water spinner bait and she was drifing a night crawler below a bobber the size of a small grapefruit behing the boat as a carefully trolled the rocky shoreline. My wife had been getting hung up and snagged all day and so I just got use to turning around about every ten minutes to help her get it out. The snagging was usually preluded with her saying "I think I got one".

Well it was later in the afternoon and we hadn't been doing to well and were getting ready to move when she again murmered "I think I got one". Out of habit more than anything, I looked at my friend and rolled my eyes slightly and then proceeded to maneuver the boat back to the "snag". "I think I got one" she said again, only this time a little more entusiastically. I kind of smirked and was looking to see were she was snagged. I followed the line down from the tip of her rod and saw that this snag appeared to be moving, both deeper and away from us!

I saw the rod bent over, almost like one that you see in the Ugly Stick ads, and my heart began beating probably faster than hers. I guided her and must have told her a hundred times "Keep you rod tip up, don't horse him in..."

Despite my warnings she reeled him in about as fast a person could and within a minute or so she had herself a 23 inch - 6 1/2 pound big mouth bass! The look on my face was probably one of great disbelief. How does someone catch a fish that big using a five foot $10.00 set-up with 40lb line nonetheless. It wasn't a new world record and not even a state record, but a fish that size is not typical in most Wisconsin lakes. I know that first hand.

The story always reminds me of how much simpler fishing was when I was a kid. A pole and reel, a hook and a few crawlers and maybe a few baits to cast. No fancy boats rigged with so many electronics that you need a mini power plant on board to keep everything going. No IMX-8 graphites rods mated with $150.00 reels and spooled with the latest greatest gel-superbraids. No tackle boxes so big that even the airlines would make you check it in. In fact, my dilemna at the time was whether to use a sinking or floating Rapala and oh yeah the colors, gold or silver.

Well, needless to say, we were a week early for the bass opener. So to my wife's reluctance we had to let her go to hopefully be caught again someday by someone whom it can bring as many memories to as it did me. We took pictures and I promised to get a replica mount of it and, well I'm still waiting to get the mount done . You see, my basment wall is already full of mounts...including my wife's rainbow trout which, not coincidentally, is 1/2 inch and 1/4 lb bigger than my rainbow mounted right next to it.

[Butch]

OK....

Mrs. Butch & my Father kicked Butch's a$$ on Trout Lake in
N. MN.

Slow trolling, long line, single hook, leech.
They were pulling um up so fast (5-7#'s) that
I could not fish. I just kept Nettin', Stringin',
and Baitin' - and Lovin' every minute!!!

B2

[szopster]

Great posts guys!

I will always be more proud of the fish she catches than my own.

I'll bet you all feel the same way.

[Sculpin]

After my first wife, who cared nothing about the out of doors, passed away, a longstanding friendship with a younger women developed into something much more meaningful.

Mutual respect and love of the outdoors led her to become my fishing buddy. Because she still supports me in the fashion to which I have become acccustomed, she is unable to accompany me on my numerous fishing trips, but when she does it is a fore gone conclusion she's going to wack my rear. Bigger walleye, more fish, ad infinitum.
One event stands out in my mind. One fishing trip early in our marriage resulted in her catching a largemouth bass of over eight pounds. When I asked her if she would like to have it mounted she asked, "how big is yours on the wall?" to which I replied "nine eleven." Her come back was "I wait until I catch one that is bigger." Well she hasn't done it yet but she retires in two years and I'm shaking in my boots.
Oh, by the way I love every minute that I spend with her and landing her fish,--------- but I don't have to bait her hook.
Sculpin

[FJH1]

Great story Pat! Similar thing happened with my wife on Big Green lake in WI about 9 years ago (at the time we were dating). Like your story, with a large mouth bass. We were casting a reed bed in the back of Norwegian Bay at dusk when her buzz bait gets slammed. She did a great job getting it in. We unhooked the beast and I could put my closed fist in it's mouth without touching anything - nice fish. Anyway, we didn't have a scale in the boat so we ran down to lake with the fish in the well to the sport shop to get a weight. Unfortunately the shop had closed. She chose to release the fish with a smile on her face :-). I was very proud of her, but not nearly as proud as she was the next day when we overheard a nearby boat saying "check out that girl, she's casting a bait casting outfit!".

Best Regards,

FJH

[BD]

NOT YET!!! And if she does it will be a monster. My biggest walleye, 13 3/4 lbs, came in Aug. 1976. Apart from that, in Wis. she has wupped me on everything from bluegills to snakes. This year is the first year she will be going with me to Ontario and I am looking forward to getting wupped there also.

[Big_Al]

So far we are tied at 14.1 lbs each. But in numbers of double digit eyes, my wife is up about 25 to 15! Never get tired of hearing her say "get the net and the camera too".

[Melonbob]

Mel and I are too close to call, but neither are double digit anyways...

A cute story regarding my uncle though. When he started dating his wife, she had never fished much, but he figured he'd change all that. Started taking her for Lake trout. A few weeks into this she caught a 25 pounder, beating his best by a few pounds. He told her how lucky she was, and that was a once in a lifetime fish where we are. you know where this is going? THREE DAYS later she caught a 28.5 pounder!!!! To this day he claims it was his guiding skills!!!! lol

Take it Easy,

Bob