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Posts: 468
Location: Not where I wanna be! | ya, i had the butt of the rod tucked under my armpit, and this GIANT 33 incher hit with such authority I dropped my rod, had the butt not been tucked under my arm, I probably would have lost it.... not too long before that I was talking about common rookie mistakes...... |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | Almost lost one during the Three Lakes WMT last year. Sunday morning was brutal cold with rain and low temps. Within the first couple casts of the morning I got hit on a manta. My hands were so cold from the reel I had an odd grip on the unit when "BAM"! If I remember right, I think I saved the rod by catching the reel handler by a finger, but got control as fast as I lost it at that point. Fish got off mid-way to the boat, BTW:( |
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Posts: 699
Location: Hugo, MN | Embarrassed to say but I once backlashed so bad one day that it snapped the rod right out of my hand and I was mute! Luckily, there was another guy in the front of the boat who was able to get the attention of the guy in the back of the boat and save my gear. |
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Posts: 1080
| Back in '84...fishing a lake in MI, for Tigers and Northerns, my uncle and cousin and I were fishing a sand flat early in the morning. As the sun rose higher in the sky, we were starting to move off of the sand flat, off the drop and out into the deeper, adjacent water. Fishing from a center console boat at the time. My cousin and I up front, re-rigging to now fish deeper water, my uncle tosses out his line off the back of the boat, to simply troll it as he steered and moved the boat off the sand flat, out over the drop, out to deeper water. As he was doing this, standing in the center of the boat, steering wheel in left hand, watching the electronics, rod/reel in right hand, his body turned, facing the front of the boat...then BAMMO! Nice 45" Tiger nails his bait. His attention and focus at that time was not on the rod/reel and trolling line. He was focused on moving the boat. That fish hit him and startled him so much and yanked him from the center console and clear to the back of the boat. Had that boat not been an outboard motor for him to grab that motor's hood with his left hand, he would have been soaking wet and gone into the drink. Happened just that fast. I remember that so vividly as if that happened just 10 minutes ago. That was the coolest and funniest thing to witness. He didn't actually go in...but he sure could have. What a memorable fish that was to say the least. We did land that fish too. Such a beauty.
Over the years, I've seen countless rods go into the drink. Heck...just a couple of years ago...my brother-in-law and I were fishing a 3 day muskie tournament in the Spring. He was all excited to have a brand new rod, reel and bait to use for that season in the boat with him. We were not even 10 minutes into the start of the tournament on the first day. We were in our first spot to fish for that day. His brand new rod/reel and bait were laying on the front deck of the boat, a small portion of that new setup was sticking up and out of the side of the boat just a tad. In his excitement to fire off as many casts as quickly as possible to get us going that morning, he was not watching his back-cast. He snagged that brand new setup with the bait on the rod/reel that was currently in his hand. So..his first "cast" with the new setup, just so happened to be by default of a snag with the other combo and up and out of the boat it went...as if very slow motion...we watched that rod and reel twirl around in the mid-air doing a few flips....and out into the drink it went into 15 fow. Brand new. Never electively casted on his own...ever. I quickly hit a waypoint on the GPS to mark it's location. We dragged and casted for that rod/reel for about 15 minutes when it just happened. Never did get it. Decided that we'd come back for it at the end of the day, after the tournament time expired for that day. We came back with one other boat...two guys in that boat...for about an hour...all four of us casted, dragged and jigged for that setup. Never did get it. Still gone and MIA to this very day.
Talk about a mood crusher 10 minutes into a 3-day tournament. That really soured his mood and mindset for that entire weekend. It was nearly impossible to get him to rebound from that one. He was mentally shot and out of it at that point. For those three days...I was pretty much just fishing by myself, even though he was still in the boat. He just wasn't there mentally. He was worthless the rest of the weekend.
Edited by MACK 1/26/2010 10:45 AM
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | Its been a few years but, yes, I once lost a rod when I was being careless and had a big fish hit unexpectedly at boatside. I now grip the rod in front of the reel and that has prevented any more lost rods. The only problem is that now it is more likely that I get pulled in and that has happened once too. So, now the lifevest is always on and there is a ladder on the boat to help get back in.
Funny topic. 
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