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Posts: 1086
| There's been one, specific bait among my arsenal over the past few years that has constantly and consistently produced fish. This one bait probably has well over 30 fish on it alone. This one bait has been incredibly productive the past three seasons.
I lost that bait after I boated and released a nice fish this past Friday night.
I threw that bait back out there and must have snagged something on the bottom of the lake in 20 feet of water. I was, and still am, incredibly heart broken over this.
It's the Law of Attraction at work here. Just after I boated that nice fish, I said to myself, "I can never lose this bait! Ever!"
Bam.
An hour later...that bait was gone. Snapped the line trying to work the bait off the snag on the bottom. 80 lb braided line at that.
I was so heart broken that the next day, I called a friend that has an AquaView camera and my bro-in-law and I sent out to look for that bait on the bottom of the lake. I obviously set a Waypoint right where I lost the lure to take us back to that spot. But....no luck. We couldn't find it nor anything that would have looked like to have been a snag on the bottom in that area. That area was clean as a whistle. Very mysterious.
This is so tragic. I kinda relate, or compare, the loss of this bait to what it'd be like if the Colts were to lose Peyton Manning (I'm from Indiana and a Colts fan). Their star performer. That's what this one bait was for me.
There is just something about that bait. The day that that bait was made, there must have been just the right density of plastic in the mold that day, the right sized diameter of internal rattle beads in the rattle chamber, the right number of rattles, the just-so-perfect tolerances of how the bait was constructed to allow that bait to produce just the perfect wiggle and vibration that just drove the fish absolutely crazy and made the fish bite! And BIG fish too! This was a big fish attracting bait.
I'm just crushed.
No clue what happened to that bait? No clue what it snagged on? Just down right odd. I should have calmed down, worked on it more slowly and carefully and I should have done all sorts of things differently. But...alas...hindsight being 20/20.
Not sure if I just snagged a pocket within the floor of the lake and buried it deep in the muck? No clue? Not even sure if that bait is even still down there or if it worked it's way out of the snag and floated to the surface and drifted away and maybe some lucky individual has found it floating somewhere and now has it in their tackle box?
Thing is...this lure looked like absolute CRAP! All beat to hell. All tore up. If someone were to find that bait and look at it, they'd probably think it's junk and just throw it away. It's not "pretty." Teeth marks and hook rash all over that bait. Hooks all bent to hell and in different directions and different states of wearing down from sharpening them so much over time.
I have a couple of dozen of this same make, model and brand of bait. I can put a dozen of them out, in the water, at the same time, and I can bet the farm on it as to which one would get bit. It'd be that one bait, every time.
I've lost a true friend in that bait.
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | I feel for you. I had an arrow that I shot 3D archery with years ago. It was my "best" arrow; straightes, fletchings looked the best, it paper tuned the best, etc. I'd shoot that arrow and that arrow alone for entire competitions. I shot that single arrow (carrying others, but only shooting that one) for more than a year. Then I hit someone's pulled insert in an elk target and shattered it! I honestly had less confidence in the next arrow I had to pull out of the quiver.
My solace was that it died doing what it did and died a heroic death. Your bait too died a heroic death behind enemy lines. Honor it and fish on. |
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Posts: 15
| I also feel your pain. I had a suick that had caught me about 50 fish including my PB a beauty 51 from Tonka in '07.
The great thing about this suick was it sank rather than floated on the retrieve. It was an orange 9" weighted model with black dots. The fact that it sank actually was why I lost it.
After my PB I decided t retire it and hung it under my replica, but after a season without, I was missing it. So I took it off the wall and threw it all day long. AT dusk I switched to a topwater and tossed it to the side and accidentally thrw it overboard. When I realized what I had done it was to late. It was in late october so I wasn't going swimming in 15 ft of water. Since then, my heart has been filled with woe. |
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Posts: 1764
Location: Ogden, Ut | I had one that caught a minimum of 24 fish (I had a few days in the fishing log that were neglected) over the course of the last 2 seasons; The manufacturer repossessed it for his wall of fame. No biggie, he gave me a few others to replace it with before he sold the company.
Thanks Baldy.
S. |
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Posts: 186
Location: West Chicago, IL | My brother had an Ama Bama that was just magic and then one day his leader broke on a back lash it was gone. He could have cried.... |
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Posts: 12
| Hey Mack,
I gotta ask... since "that bait" was a one of a kind deal, no harm in giving up the name, size and color eh? |
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Posts: 485
Location: On my favorite lake! | I would try to get another like it and fish it until you get a fish. I lost my best lure do to a crack that couldnlt be fixed. I now try to duplicate my favorite baits with action looks and sound. |
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Posts: 96
| MACK - 9/8/2009 9:22 AM
I was so heart broken that the next day, I called a friend that has an AquaView camera and my bro-in-law and I sent out to look for that bait on the bottom of the lake.
Been there, but I had luck on my side...dang lure came up on the AquaView cord just when I decided to give up. Couldn't do that again in a million years.  |
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Location: Oswego, IL | Doesnt everyone have multiples of baits? Heck if I had one that was crushing them one day, i would have 5 in the box before the next trip I always buy more than 1. Sucks to lose baits or $30 however you look at it. |
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| In January I lost my black custom weighted 10" Suick on something in Cave Run. The next day my friend and I went back and actually found the stump it was hung on. We attached the anchor on the stump and drug it in to shallow water. It was actually three christmas trees daisy-chained together attached to cement blocks. After wrestling the trees for a great deal of time handging from the side of the boat, we found and retrieved the lure. Some new hooks and it was back to catching fish. Since then it has caught about 5 more fish. It is well into the 50 fish range and has many years ahead of it.
I can totally relate to the feeling of lose. I felt like I lost an old friend. It was really hard to pull away after loosing it. The feeling of happiness was almost unbelievable after we found it. Then when it caught a fish it was even more amazing.
Sorry for your lose. |
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Posts: 304
Location: Lino Lakes, MN | Losing a favorite bait sucks  I lost a Striker that was awsome casted it over some shallow rocks in a good chop and got hung up. To risky to ge close to try and save.... I still miss that bait!
Fishing a 15 foot edge on a reef in MN on Sunday night I hooked something with a Supermodel right after engaging the reel... Turned out to be a anchor rope cut off. Luckily it was hooked just at the very beginning of the cast and I could reach down and cut the hooks with a Knipex---- What are the odds and how lucky was I to be able to reach it --good thing it was not rocken out that night.....
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Posts: 284
Location: Fishing the weeds | S.C.U.B.A. |
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Posts: 1086
| I have thought about scuba diving for it. I'm not certified, nor have the equipment. Unfortunately, the only two friends that I know that are scuba certified and have the equipment, both live in Texas. Not doing me much good.
On the topic of snagging anchor ropes. This very same bait, about three years ago, snagged an anchor rope as well. This was one night while I was out solo. Scared the crap out of me. I couldn't figure out what it was. I was out over open water, out over 30 fow. Snagged something. Been through this area million times over the past 10 years. Knew the area well. I knew there were no downed trees or anything of the like. I could reel down with my 8 ft rod, tip buried in the water and I could feel the leader hitting the top rod guide. So...I knew I was close to the bait. Meaning, it was snagged on something suspended up in the water column in that 30 feet of water. Obviously, at that time, not snagged on the bottom. At the time I did not know it was an anchor rope. Back then, my wife and I were big into watching those CSI shows on the TV. At 2 am , pitch black of darkness, out solo, my mind, went to: dead body. Guess I had too much CSI on the brain! LOL!
Anyway...I didn't want to break my rod nor my reel gears with the tension and dead weight. So...I tied that line off to a boat cleat and slowly moved the boat with my trolling motor, or so I thought I'd be able to move the boat with the trolling motor. Keeping my eyes on the GPS, I saw I wasn't moving. Started up the gas motor and slowly engaged it and saw that I started to move and pulling the snag. Again...brain still connected to the dead body concept. Now, getting kinda freaked out...not really sure if I wanted to see or deal with what I was snagged on. I then undid the line from the boat cleat and then got out a planer board and started to wrap the line around the planer board and used it to reel in the snag instead of risking the rod and reel. And up it came. My heart was pounding. Again..not sure if I wanted to deal with what I saw. Then I saw the anchor rope in the boat's stern light. Relieved, I relaxed and up came a brand spankin' new, 15 lb claw-type boat anchor. Price tag still on it!  Whatever type of rope that anchor rope was made out of had it suspended vertically up into the water column and one hook on that lucky bait snagged that 1/4 inch diameter rope. The odds.
Wish I knew someone with scuba gear to send down to look around.
Muskiewhored....read my post all the way through to the end. I have dozens of this very same bait in the same color pattern, different color patterns and in straight and jointed models. Doesn't matter. THIS one was the one that out produced all of the others. Again...tolerances of materials used during the production run of THAT lure is what sets that lure aside from the others.
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Posts: 477
Location: Iowa | I know how you feel, kind of. Sorry for the loss. I've got a bunch of DDD's, but only have 1 that works PERFECTLY. Just something about that one. The colors are all but gone, hooks have been replaced more than once, it's got just the exact right amount of weight and wiggle. It just plain outperforms the other DDD's I've thrown. I've actually made extra passes just to throw this bait after throwing another DDD and then caught fish. Maybe it's all just timing?? I don't know, but that one is THE ONE for me. Hope I never lose it! |
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Posts: 283
| I lost my favorite spinnerbait like 3 weeks ago. I had like 40 fish on that thing. |
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | Chad Larson - 9/8/2009 8:04 PM
In January I lost my black custom weighted 10" Suick on something in Cave Run. The next day my friend and I went back and actually found the stump it was hung on. We attached the anchor on the stump and drug it in to shallow water. It was actually three christmas trees daisy-chained together attached to cement blocks. After wrestling the trees for a great deal of time handging from the side of the boat, we found and retrieved the lure. Some new hooks and it was back to catching fish. Since then it has caught about 5 more fish. It is well into the 50 fish range and has many years ahead of it.
I can totally relate to the feeling of lose. I felt like I lost an old friend. It was really hard to pull away after loosing it. The feeling of happiness was almost unbelievable after we found it. Then when it caught a fish it was even more amazing.
Sorry for your lose.
YOU OWE ME BIG TIME FOR THAT!!!!!!! |
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Posts: 723
| that is one reason why I always carry a lure retriever in my boat.
has saved me so many times its kinda humorous to think how many I wouldve lost without that $30 purchase.
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Location: Oswego, IL | I lost a rainbow cowgirl in a 20ft tree on LOTW. Wind took that thing so fast, bomb shot down the shore line wrapped the lure/leader/and line around at the top, couldnt get it out for the life of me, ruined my day seeing it was brand new and the 1st cast. I almost wonder if a lure retriveer wouldve been able to untangle, or pull it out any better.....Next time I am back I will see if its still there and try again.........Sure is a pretty tree now. |
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Posts: 897
| get a saw and cut down the tree next time. |
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Location: Oswego, IL | Yeah right, thats all I need is the DNR seeing some A-hole cutting down a tree out there. I wouldnt dare to damage any part of that resource. |
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Posts: 1086
| dogboy - 9/11/2009 12:22 PM
that is one reason why I always carry a lure retriever in my boat.
has saved me so many times its kinda humorous to think how many I wouldve lost without that $30 purchase.
I carry a couple different kinds of lure retrievers in the boat at all times. One being the Frabill extending lure retriever and a few home made devices to slide down the line to knock things free. The Frabill piece only extends to 15 ft. However...as I was working this snag, I had the Frabill extending piece out of it's storage in the boat and in my right hand...ready to be deployed...when...the line snapped. I even had the reel in free-spool mode holding it with my left thumb. I'm guessing something "sharp" came across that line down there for as easily and as quickly as that line snapped. Remember that thread above...I had snagged a 15 lb anchor with this same bait and brought that 15 lb dead-weight anchor up off the bottom with the 80 lb braid. Something different happened that night.
Muskiewhored: Climb the tree to retrieve your bait? |
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Location: Oswego, IL | Mack, its way up at the top, I highly doubt I can climb with out damaging the tree limbs, not to mention the fall wouldnt feel to good. Next spring I will be back there, if I am lucky it may still be there, highly doubt it though. |
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Posts: 83
| Mack, another poster mentioned it, but getting a diver to retrieve a lure like that is not uncommon. There is something about certain specific lures that catch fish, no matter how dinged up they get. It had a vibration, or would wobble a bit differently than others that seemed exactly like it. I have been asked to find them a couple times, sometimes I can, other times I come up empty.
If there is a dive shop in the area, drop in and talk to the guy behind the counter. chances are, he will know someone who will look for it for you. Most shops offer search and recovery training as part of Master diver training. A lot of divers like to do it, and the shop might send two of these guys your way.
A recovery effort might go something like this: You take the divers to the site in a boat with a good ladder on it, and a good GPS. You then anchor as close to exactly over the lost lure as you can. Very important that you get that anchor to within 20 feet or so, and it hooks with little dragging. A method I have used is as follows: The recovery divers will enter the water, and follow the anchor line to the bottom. I tie the line from a hand reel with 70 feet of line or so to the anchor, and swim in ever wider circles letting out a few feet of line after every complete circle, and exploring any timber or rock pile carefully. This way lets you totally cover the entire area of a circle with a 70 foot radius. It works well if the drop is a good one.
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Posts: 111
Location: somewhere! | I've lost a true friend in that bait.
the position error on your gps could been way up there that day,id go back.you could have been looking in right field instead of left!!!!
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