Simpler Times

On Saturday, my wife Hanna and I went fishing. It was her first time in quite a while and it seemed like she wanted to do everything at once – flinging spinnerbaits and jerkbaits and even a big old glidebait with reckless abandon. I’d been down the week before and had caught most of my fish just flicking a Senko around. There’d been just enough fish on moving baits to force me to keep multiple rods on the deck, but conditions had deteriorated since then, with lots of cold rain dirtying and cooling the water.

Fortunately, while the fish didn’t eat a lot of different things, they kept on eating. I had a limit in about 45 minutes and kept catching a steady stream of small keepers as the day progressed. The key? Casting a Senko not to the stumps you could see, but to the next row out, just out of eyesight, and then doing n-o-t-h-i-n-g. 

She couldn’t – or rather, wouldn’t – do it. 

No matter how many times I told her what I was doing, she resisted. I know that she dislikes spinning tackle, but come on. She threw to dirt shallow stumps. She flung a new swimbait. The few times she agreed to throw her wacky Senko she moved it too quickly or too often. It was strange – she’s usually not only a quick learner, but a willing listener, but by the time I sat her down and told her to slow it the heck down – sometime around noon – I had her down 20 to nothing.

I recognize that it’s not always easy to take instruction from your spouse. In fact, years ago I had to have a friend teach her to use a baitcaster or risk divorce.  But I was genuinely trying to make her day better. Fortunately, she acquiesced before it was too late. A minute or two later, she had her first keeper. Before it was time to go home, she caught a solid 4-pounder. It salvaged the day and possibly the short-term of our relationship. The lesson, as always – let the Senko do its job!