I lost my rod

[justwannafish]

Reading Milia's thread about strangest things caught, I read several people hooked old rods that were at the bottom of the lake. It reminded me of my last trip to Canada. By the way great thread Milia.

Last year while on Cedar Lake in Ontario I cast my brand new rig, maybe the third or fourth cast, the reel backlashed and the weight of the spinner jerked the rod right out of my hands. I watched my prize rig sink out of sight. I also had a new fishfinder/gps on board so I quickly marked the spot and "fished" around the area for the next hour or so no luck.

I was embarrassed I let go of my rod:o and upset that I just lost a brand new Abu Garcia Record on a new St. Croix rod. The resort owner, trying to console me told me that the lake is full of rods belonging to fishermen who did exactly the same thing. It didn't make me feel any better.

Three days later someone from my party said he would go out and help me find my rod and reel. He controlled the trolling motor and I drug a heavy spoon along the bottom and within less than a minute I had my rig back.

Has anyone else ever let go of their rod and watched it sink into the water? Did you find it again?

[diemai]

It was the time back in the early 90's , when my wife and me came across those "quiver tip" rods for the first time .

In America you might not be familiar to them , these lay on a rod rest , any slightest nibble on the bait is detected by the most sensitive tip , provided the line passes out at about 90° to the rod , a bottom sinker or chumming basket set-up is essential .

It has something of a revolver quick draw to instantly grab the rod to haul back on a strike , you'd always need be on alert sitting right next to the rod's butt .

Anyway , it happened to be , that one day on the pond's site I have found a snelled hook , that I never knew before , and I tied it to my "quiver tip" rod's line .

Fishing was slow , and I haven't payed attention for some time , actually I was chatting with someone a few yards away from my rod and suddenly saw my rod being tossed out of its two "Y" shaped rests right into the water , obviously a carp had taken the bait .

Well , it swam through someone elses line , got tangled to it and the person could somehow land that fish on my line , but the connection to the rod had snapped , so I guess , that it is still in there today .

Later one guy told me , that the strange hook , that I have found , was a "sure set" hook , that fish hook themselves onto it , without having to set the hook !

Never used such hook for "quiver tip" fishing again:huh: !

On another ocassion some two years ago my wife had her rod pulled into the water by a carp

, we were already packing to leave , so we didn't pay attention , and of course my wife had failed to open the bail of the casting reel .

Anyway , as we heard some noise and a dampened splash , we turned around to see the rod pulling out straight out the pond just to submerge slowly like a submarine on the dive .

Even though I had already given up upon that telescopic rod , I have later searched the pond with my binoculars , I was lucky , that it was a quiet day and the waters surface was still .

Finally I saw it floating under a bush on the opposite bank , so my wife walked around the pond , and she finally could recover it , the carp had snapped the leader , and the air inside of the pole was sufficient to keep it afloat even with the attached reel !

She was quite angry about having to walk for a mile , since the pond was surrounded by a swamp area , no short cuts possible .

Cleaned up rod and reel , and the next day it has caught carp in that very pond again !

greetz , diemai

Edited February 27, 2009 by diemai
adding text

[spoopa]

Me and my dad were trolling and it was getting to be the end of the day, still no fish all day. go to set a new rig and put it in the rod holder and i forget to put the latch on the holder. Well not 10 minutes later the rod starts to go crazy and before any of us could get to it the pole was out of the boat:(. The worse part of the whole ordeal was that the pole was my most favorite pole:pissed:. well we stopped the boat and fished for the pole with some heavy spoons and what not and lost quite a few lures in just trying to get my prized possesion back. Still no luck, there was a guy in a pontoon boat that was bait fishing and seen the whole thing happen. He called us over to his boat and lended us a grappling hook, personally i didnt really think that it was gonna work. Well i held the rope and my dad did the trolling motor and we would go across the path of where we thought the pole might be. about 30 minutes later i pull up the grappling hook and just to my luck i caught my line and saved the pole:yeah:. i was one happy camper then.

[Coley]

I didn't lose it, but I dropped a flipping stick on a hook set and

it came up and went down, I followed it around for about

10 min until I could reach it. A 2# bass was still on the jig.

[ChampionBoatGuy]

I lost a really nice baitcasting rig last year in Gardner Lake just east of where I live. I caught a small bass and set my rod down on the front of my boat so I could get the scale and weigh this little fish. She was maybe 2 lbs at max, just a little thing. I threw her back in, turned around to grab my rig and it was gone! Somehow I had thrown it overboard and not even heard the splash. I noted the area and left for the day. I went and bought some aluminum stock and some of those metal stringers. I made a triangle shaped rod retriever with the aluminum stock as a base, holes drilled in either end, and the metal stringers attached at the holes and then together. I unsprung the clasps, tied a rope on, and started dragging the bottom. It took about 10 minutes for me to retrieve my rig that next day. After a clean and rebuild at home the baitcaster works better now that it did before

[BobP]

St Croix Avid rod, just-bought & reconditioned Ambassadeur Pro Max 1600 reel. Got in 3 casts with the new rig and leaned it against a boat seat to throw a C-rig. C-rig caught the rod on the backswing and I threw it overboard in 30 ft of water. Watched stupified as the rig slowly sank into the depths. Dragged for an hour, no result. Called the wife to bring my underwater camera to the lake. Searched 1 hour. No result. Decided broken and lost gear is just the price of goin fishin.

[diemai]

@ BobP

Uuuhhhh , s..t , that sounds pretty bad:( !

I hate sucha situation fishing for things in the water and not getting them back , never lost a rod that way though , but a landing net and some sinking handmade lures as well !

really pity you , greetz , diemai:yay:

[Vodkaman]

Fishing a lake on a windy day, whatching a 45" umbrella in camo' green, go drifting by. You just know someone is having a bad day.

Which is more embarrassing, losing the rod privately, or losing the brolly, for everyone to see?

Dave

[philB]

Here's my story, I think an awful lot of anglers lose a rod at some time or another. Fishing what we term a gravel pit for Northern Pike I had 2 rods out with deadbaits hard on the bottom of the lake. The bait on the left hand rod was taken and a fish duly hooked. As a precaution what we generally do is with the second rod, take it off the rests and sink the line so it lays on the lake bed and lay the rod on the bank with the bale arm open so as not to end up with tangled lines should the hooked fish swim over the second line during the 'fight'. The fish was landed weighed and returned but when I came to reinstate the second rod back onto the rod rests it was gone , stupidly I had not ensured the bale arm was open and it had closed when I laid the rod onto the bank, a second fish had then picked up the bait and the inevitable occurred, the rod disappeared into the depths.

This story does however have a happy ending, as I am stood there scratching my head and mourning the loss of a fine rod and reel, also worrying about the welfare of the fish, up the rod popped, this kit floated, out came the lure rod, a quick cast was made over the floating rod and reel and voil

[Milia B]

Dont worry guys ( Phil & V-man) lots of guys have trouble ( especially Englishmen ) have difficulty with their rods from time to time.

[Vodkaman]

It's that long since I used mine, I have trouble finding it.

Dave

[philB]

Ah well Dave your a Lancastrian, what do you expect. I never have trouble with mine, always ready for action when required .

[diemai]

@ Milia B

Guess , it's not due to being English , but the cause lies in the fishing methods practised !

In America , also in Scandinavia , anglers go more for lures , in England they traditionally use bait on stationary rods , in Germany they fish both methods to about an equal share , though in both countries lurefishing becomes more and more popular .

Anyway , what I wanna say is , that a lureangler is far less prone to loose his rod , since he is always holding it in his hands all of the time(unless he had stuck his hands in a grease pot before:yes:) .

Stationary rods laying on rod rests are easily pulled away by biggger fish , one only has to forget or fail to open the bail of the utilized spinning reels used or miss activating the freespool function of so-called baitrunner reels .

But even if you have done it all correctly , when willing to set the hook , you must also not forget to close the bail again or de-activate the freespool , when a fish is pulling down line , otherwise you'll end up with backlash and a missed bite !

In that way you're darn right , Milia , it can be difficult from time to time:yes: !

PS:

This "closed bail affair" seem to happen very often , I lost one rod to it , a second I fortunately got back , but through the years I've also found already three rods(either floating up or pulled them out being hooked on my lure) , that obviously departed from their owner that very same way .

greetz , diemai:yay:

[philB]

One should never let ones rod be stationary for too long.

[hazmail]

This is an excerpt from a post I put up on another forum about one month back

I have this mate, we have been fishing together for about 30 years, and it's usually me who forgets /breaks, or loses everything, but a couple of months ago (last spring), before I got my new boat going, we went Trout fishing for four days. On the first day, out at dawn and cold, we put all our gear in his boat and off we go, down the lake to a carefully plotted spot we had scientifically chosen, with the help of a bottle or two of red the night before. There we were planing along, me with my back to the cold wind, my mate telling me how happy I would be when I finish my new boat with the new four stroke EFI Merc blah, blah, where you can actually have a conversation at this speed, and me gawking out the back, watching my new (($130 - used once) rod and reel, in slow motion, gently rolling out of the vertical deck mount (where he had inserted it, back to front), gliding back behind our speeding boat, and disappearing into the wake foam. I alerted him to my rod's fate, and told him not to worry about it and keep going, he gave me that knowing look of, ' you stupid B******, why did you put it there'. What do I say? I know if it was me and my boat, and his rod, he would have had me turn around, go back to the dock and call out the Police Diving Squad to retrieve it. Sometimes I think we have fished too long together, I feel like Walter Matthau, and I know he's Jack Lemmon.

[braveviper]

It just happened to me this weekend! While trying to take a picture of a bass my dad caught AND keep the boat out of the trees AND answer the cell phone(wife....when ya coming home?) a baitcaster somehow went in 10 feet of water without a sound.Luckily I used the picture on the digital camera as a reference to where to start looking.My Dad snagged it the next day with a 1/2 ounce jig. The big question is...what to do with the reel? Take it apart and clean?

[diemai]

@ bravepiper

Still lucky after all:) !

Guess , you won't get around disassembly , cleaning and new lubrication , or maybe thorough rinsing under the tab and drying afterwards would do as well ?

But at least after drying I'd put some reel oil and grease , you should see , whether it works ,.......if not easy enough , take it apart !

good luck , diemai

[rotorhead]

Funny you should mention the lost rod. I was fishing a tournament this past weekend and while netting my partners fish, I left my rod with a plastic worm hanging off the back of the boat. I heard a splash:whistle:guess what the rod was pulled in by the buddy of the bass that i was netting. Gone in about twenty feet of water:flame: No ones fault but my own I guess easy come easy go. Spent about ten minutes trying to snag it but no luck. I have often have heard about fish pulling a rod in but I never guessed it would happen to me.

Rotorhead Atlanta Ga.

[braveviper]

On the other end of the spectrum, While fishing off the Fire Island lighthouse a couple summers ago we caught a small striped bass that had another hook and line still attatched.After pulling in 250 or so yards of the line we discovered it was attached to a surf rod and reel.