Near Rod Loss Experiances

Palolo’s post reminded me of this question.

How many of you have had a near rod loss (or a rod loss) experience?

The only one I’ve had…and it wasn’t my rod, but I caused it, was when I was around 7 years old. While fishing for gills in a boat on a lake “up North”, my line became tangled around the lure. Instead of loosening the line, I tightened it and I couldn’t get the knot out.

The old timer sitting next to me felt sorry for me and said “let’s have a look” and set his brand spanking new rod down next to him.

Yep, a gill pulled his rod right over the side of the boat.

Dad ended up putting a daredevil on and hooked the line bringing in the rod and the sunfish. Man was I red from embarrassment that I caused him to loose that rod and it sure was a relief when it came back to the boat!

Personally, I think channel cats are the greatest cause of lost rods.

Years ago on Upper Red in the summer I had a walleye hooked deep so my uncle sets his rod down to help me and says “watch my rod” well in seconds his rod bolts over the side and all I could come up with was “well i watched it go over…”

Threw a muskie rod over board this late november throwing bull dawgs when in mid cast my mitten clicked the spool closed and was yanked right out of my hands but thankfully the st croix’s with 400TEs float!

Fishing for channel cats last summer with the FW. I was sitting in a swivel seat watching rods that were propped in the bck of the boat. FW taps me on the shoulder that she has a fish on. I swivel to the right to grab the net and as I swivel the rest of the way around I see my St. Croix rod that I won in the 2010 Freeze Your Butt prediction contest going over the end of the boat. I barely grabbed it, landed and netted that fish before the FW got hers close enough to net. To close for comfort.

Last summer I took my 3 kids (ages 2,2,and 4) to White Bear. They each have their “snoopy pole” and they love to catch sunnies.
We had just started to find the fish, when I notice something sinking in the water right in front of my son. When I realized it was his pole, I dove in, thinking that I could grab it, well I didn’t.
The worst part of the whole deal was that they two girls were so scared when they saw me go overboard. The wouldn’t stop crying so we had to head back and call it a day.
They still talk about that story whenever we talk about fishing. Fortunately it isn’t so emotional for them.

my family has a cabin up on lake superior, and sometimes we fish off of a pier that has a weedbed tucked inside filled with pike. one time before he passed, my grandpa left his pole sitting there and walked over to use 60 feet away when a pike hit. luckily there were swimmers jumping off the other side so one heard it draggin across the cement and grabbed it before it went in. a few years later I had to run back and dive across the cement to reach out and grab a pole that was about to go over in the same spot as well. my brother took the cake though, as he was preoccupied with his phone while fishing and turned around to an empty pier. the only thing that saved the pole was the fact it was black and 8 feet long, so he could see it in the clear water. after a few casts he snagged the line, got the pole up, then reeled in the 39″ pike that took it.

Quite a few years ago I had taken my mom muskie fishing, she was using one of my rods and it “slipped” on the cast and out in to the lake it went. She was mortified that she chucked my rod in to the lake…then she asked…”how much is that going to cost me”. I told her she didn’t want to know as I was tossing out a bouy where the rod went down. I hooked on a big spoon got to where I thought I would be pitched at the rod sideways…..5 casts later….rod retrieved and relieved mom. The look on her face was PRICELESS when it went over. It was only about 9 feet of water but murky and cold so I am glad the spoon worked I didn’t want to go for a swim.

On my cabin in mille lacs I often bring my cat rods up to toss out a bottom right with a big sucker for some toothy fish.

Well my step mothers brother was up with me and itchin to do some fishing. In fact he already had his line in the water. We went down to the dock and I said ok where is your bobber. He goes it is right out there. wait, it was there!!!?!?!?!

I said well were did you place your rod. So we walked over to his rod and as soon as he bent down to pick the rod up off the dog. SPLASH!!!

I was able to use my cat rod to snag his pole from the bottom and reel in a half eating 8 inch sucker minnow!

Another one of my ones I still laugh about was up in the BWCA canoeing with my dad, and then my cousin and uncle. My uncle had just gotten a fancy brand new fishing rod and was letting my cousin use it who was about 8 at the time?

First cast he casted the whole rod into the lake! His dad was pretty furious, but after seeing us laughing he got over it fast.

A couple years back shore fishing from a campsite on the MN. Rods were in holders securely, but something hit mine and immediately pulled the holder out of the ground and it took off toward the water. Grabbed it just before it disappeared and set the hook. Reeling it in was fun since so much sand got into my old Mitchell 300 – made some awful noises.

Turned out to be a 30″ channel with some beef to it. Took the spool off the reel, rinsed it in the river, and continued fishing.

I lost a rod once and found it again the next year in the exact spot where I lost it. I’ve also had numerous people out bobbering for cats and they don’t pay attention enough when a fish hits and runs there are many close calls. I don’t like to put them in rod holders as fish can drop them while you are getting the rod out. One nice thing about using lit up bobbers is when goes over you have a decent chance to get it back. Our friend Jerry nearly lost two rods last summer in one trip.

Only rod ever lost out of my boat was back in the early eighties. Took Junior he had never been Flathead fishing. We hit pool 7 with creek chubs and suckers in the bait bucket. Set up right at dusk he set his rod up in the back of the boat and I mentioned to him he should really support it better. Junior no more then turned around and that rod took off out the back of the boat like it was thrown out. He was devastated, I tied on a weighted treble hook and started to make some casts trying to hook the line. Low and behold i caught the line, I grabbed the line and started to pull it in, I did not know which end the rod was on. Suddenly I feel this tug tug and I told Junior the fish was still on. He did not believe me he was dicking around pulling in the other end with the rod on it. Once he had the rod up and the line reeled in I told him to set the hook when I let go of the line. I let go he never set the hook, as he started to reel putting pressure on the hook that rod doubled over.

I wish I would have had a movie camera, the next chain of events was more then I could take. He was screaming, it is a fish, jumping up and down, trying to get that fish reeled in I don`t think he had both feet on the floor the hole time. His eyes were the size of saucers, and never quit yelling IT IS FISH, he had never had a fish on that big before. Finally managed to get it boat side and in the boat, it was a nice flat about 40# but to Junior it was a world record Marlin or something. He was shaking so bad he about fell out of the boat, so I had him sit down, he was so pumped I thought he was going to die on me.

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He was shaking so bad he about fell out of the boat, so I had him sit down, he was so pumped I thought he was going to die on me.

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Awesome!

I think both of my kids tossed one overboard while they were learning to fish. One time in MO fishing I was sitting way up front in the bow of a speed boat with my toes hanging in the water fishing. I had one rod sitting on the bow deck and was using another. I had a really old lure hanging off the end of the one on the deck. Another boat came by and the wake was moving the boat up and down and the lure was splashing in the lake. Sure enough I see this HUGE bass come up and grab the lure and take my rod with it. I tied my t-shirt to a tree on the shore, drove the boat back to the resort we were staying at, grabbed my nephews swim mask and went back. I was only in about 15′ so I went over looking for the rod. About half way down, I see my floating lure and just followed the line down to the pole. I fished with that pole for years after that too.

last year I had a line out of the side of the boat. I was busy messing around with my phone when I heard the pole slide along the side of the boat. by the time I looked up it had pulled over one bench seat and the reel hooked on the next seat. good thing it caught, it was my first decent fish of the year.

A couple years ago there was a fantastic flathead bite here in town because of the long period of high water we were having bringing many flatheads upriver that spring. The dam downtown was a favorite spot for alot of people with many catching very nice flatheads. On the dam theres a handrail to keep people from falling over into the water below and people use this handrail to lean thier poles against while fishing for the flatheads.

We found a decent spot next to a pileing that holds the dam and the road decks up and threw in with 6″ bluegill. Alot of guys and myself tie off the bottom of thier poles with a piece of nylon braided string and put the loop in it and that goes around the bottom of the poles, then you just set them on the walkway. I didn’t bring any string and was hopeing to find a place with the string already tied off and ready to go but there wasen’t any so I had to fish without the strings safety. I was watching my two poles, looking briefly to something else, then back to the poles keeping my eye on them because the flatheads were hitting hard and really going with the bluegills and I knew I had to keep my eye on my poles.

All it took was a good solid hit and up my pole came befor I could even focus on my rod and luckly for my reel catching the handrail it was saved from going over. I did get the fish and it weighed 27 pounds. There was a good bite that day and almost everyone had fish on thier stringers. When flatheads hit hard and really run with the bait it only takes a split second to loose a pole, its better too tie them off and just pull them out of the string loop when you set the hook.

When it comes to ditty pole fishing for flatheads I’ve had a few of those pulled out of the bank even though I had pushed them back into the bank a couple feet, its also a safe bet to tie the bottom of those off too. Its hard to believe the power in some of the big ones that pull an 8′ dittypole into the water. Smaller ones will do it in a soft bank but once in awhile you hook a big one that will pull a dittypole out of almost any bank.

Caught two poles with the edge of the castnet and threw them both overboard. The guy I was with thought it was the funniest thing ever in his boat. Aborted the throw and got the net thrown over one before it sank. Got other one the next day with a big treble.

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Caught two poles with the edge of the castnet and threw them both overboard. The guy I was with thought it was the funniest thing ever in his boat.

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Sorry Josh, that made me chuckle too. Easy to do when it’s not my equipment.

I’m waiting for Bushman to drop by.

Probably lost a few kids poles, but not sure I ever lost a rod to a fish. Had a few close calls, in addition to channel cats I think carp have been known to snatch a pole or two.

I had a very close call with a rod in the back of the boat at my mom’s pond when a nice channel cat tried to snatch it. Luckily, the heavy mono got hung-up on a trolling motor mount screw. Otherwise, it would have been history for sure!

I’ve also broken a few rods… SUV lift gates, trailer guide ons. Funny, when I started using more high quality gear I got a lot more careful with it.

OH! YEAH…broken rods!

Never broke one. As hard as I try…(knock on wood)

Now I did have a client snap on on a 50+ pounder. Man was that a hoot. One of those trips that just stands out. LOL!

Deano gave me a St Croix to try on sturgeon a number of years ago. I think it was a 9′ trolling rod if I recall. Hooked in to a 40ish inch fish and the rod went under the boat.

I mean UNDER the boat because of it’s length.

Then I started to hear the sound of “ping-ping–pingping” the graphite fibers popping. That one went into the rod locker right quick.

You should have told me that BEFORE you were in my boat.

I once broke 6 rods in one season. All on hook sets. Then I went medium heavy and now all I break is leaders.

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I lost a rod once and found it again the next year in the exact spot where I lost it. I’ve also had numerous people out bobbering for cats and they don’t pay attention enough when a fish hits and runs there are many close calls. I don’t like to put them in rod holders as fish can drop them while you are getting the rod out. One nice thing about using lit up bobbers is when goes over you have a decent chance to get it back. Our friend Jerry nearly lost two rods last summer in one trip.

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I’m a couple days late on this one. I remember that one big channel that started to run with my bait and almost pulled the rod out of the boat. I grabbed it at the last second before it went over. Sure was a nice fish though.