I'd say her catch beats yours in this case, cause your smile is worth a cup of coffee or a fish story shared with a friend, but her smile is worth a million $$, it's priceless. This is the part that impresses me the most:
" It was terrible conditions winds 25-35 and gusting, rain was sideways and current was scary. She stuck it out all day and ended up catching a 36 1/2" Bluefish, with no assistance from me"
Sounds like you got a fishing partner for life, Fin, and these memories will be in her head forever. Beautiful pics, congrats to you both.
By the way, I tried to make the Striper only measure 35" with the tape, so her fish would be bigger than mine. She saw what I was doing and told me to do it right and she loved me anyway.
I couldn't ask for a better fishing partner
The best part, she is the next generation of fishermen or "woman" to protect our access and fisheries rights. The memories are great, but teaching her to protect our access and resources are even better and she gets it.