I took an old Navy Buddy and his wife fishing yesterday. It was couples fishing, a nice day. The plan was to fish the CBBT for Spade. On the way out I told Sandy if we struck out at the bridge we would need to ride out the the CLT. She asked me if I was trying to trick her. She has told me about her fears of not seeing land. I have tried to assure her of land being there, and that we may or may not see it due to haze. She does not buy the haze one bit, but she said if we needed to she would go.

Anyway we struck out at the 4th island, but while getting the anchor out I notice something was missing, my freaking landing net was not in the cabin. I am bummed and mad at myself for not having required gear onboard.

Mario and I decide that we are men and we can just grab the tails and lift the fish out of the water. OK, seems do-able.

We get to CLT and set up. We get a pretty good spot and start fishing. Mario's wife looks to have never been fishing before ever. The first spade hits her rod and she does some interesting moves that left her baitcaster birded and her line broke. I handed her my spinning reel and rigged myself another. We all land a fish or 2 and everything seems great, even hand grabing the spadefish is working like a champ. Mario's wife does a great job on her next fish and I relax.

Then it happens and big fish hits. It mario's wife's rod. She is cranking and yanking and this fish is taking some line. She is doing a real good job, then she seems to not be able to get any line in. I finally notice that its not her fault but the anchor line. I start pulling up the anchor and I see the fish come unwrapped from the line and float back to the rear of the boat. I yell to her that it is a big one. I cannot remember if it was me or Mario that grabbed the fish, but anyway her first Spade trip and against the odds she had a 22.5 release citation spade in the boat. In all the excitement the fish was released before we got a picture.

About 10 min's later I lose a nice "big one at the boat trying to grab it" A fitting ending for an idiot who cannot think to bring a net.

Ill post pictures later.

Im happy Sandy let me take her to the tower.

Eric

Been there, done that. SUCKS.. cave man style ! unga bunga

The surest way to catch a trophy fish is to forget the net or gaff!

Or catch something big when you are fishing for something small.

Great post Eric.

Nice job on the paper though!! I've gone offshore with Mike and no gaff...even tried to borrow one from Nela's boat on the way out. Lost a big tuna that day right next to the boat. Live and learn.

Nice Job Eric, you had fun and caught fish - mission accomplished!!!