A bad way to lose a rod

[Mike Churchill]

Not that there are any good ones. :(

Hit Lake Amador Saturday with a large crowd of CFFU members. Fishing was good in the middle of the day--several big fish for each of
us who tubed in the Carson Arm of the lake. Unfortunately, while releasing one, I made an expensive mistake...

Netted a 19 incher with my left hand, set the rod on my right side with the reel on the "floor" in the front of my Fishcat V-tube and the rod sticking out to the right. Unhooked the fish and tossed the fly over the right side of the tube. Held the fish up to the left for my buddy Gene to take a photo, then released it. Reached to my right for the rod--nothing there! :shock: :? :oops: :cry: :cry: Obviously didn't do it exactly like I usually do.

After about 5 minutes of shocked cussing, I grabbed my second rod and resumed fishing. The six pounder I landed a bit later lifted my spirits, but will not replace the outfit...

So, for a moment's carelessnes/inattention, I'm out one Sage DS2, a decent Lamson reel, and a Rio Versatip line. All are about 25 feet down at current water levels.

Painful lesson: make damn sure you keep control of your rod when releasing fish in your tube...

May none of you make the same mistake... :o

[WinterrunRon]

Mike,

Don't beat yourself up too bad. I'll bet everyone on this board can tell a similar story. In fact, I told one about a fish camping trip gone bad late last year too painful to repeat. Hint: Broken rod on third cast... no backup... 5 hours from home. That's just the beginning.

Anyone care to chime in and share your pain so Mike doesn't feel like he's all alone.

This could be a lonnnnnnnnnnnnng thread!

Ron

[bolden]

This summer i hiked into the Bear Trap Canyon, the Madison below Ennis Lake. I hiked about four miles in, with about a
gallon of water (it was 100 degrees) and all of my boxes and water purifier. After about thirty minutes of fishing,
just as i was starting to move some big fish, i broke my rod in half on a bush next to the river. If there was anyone within
a couple of miles they would have heard some cussing.

That was a frustrating day, especially because later i went in to Bozeman to get an oil change and and a motel, and the Big 0
didn't call me to tell me they were done with the oil change, so when i got there at 5:05 (they closed at 5), no one was there.
My car was in the parking lot completely unlocked with all of my gear, hundreds of dollars in cash, and a set of keys. I was
a little angry.

Anyway, sorry to hear about the rod and reel, but it sounds like you caught some nice fish.

[bp]

this could indeed get long. file this under the category of "we've probably all done this"

fishing the Big Horn couple of Octobers ago with some buddies. Borrowed foat tube - an old loaner from one of the guys. for you guys who know that river, you'll know that there is only one piece of anything that can be called white water. late in the day, near the end of the the float, placed my 5WT in the unfamiliar rod holder. 50 ft of river later an no 5WT - right in the middle of the run. too deep to see, too fast to wade and look. to add insult to injury one of the oar locks was slipping so i took out my Swiss Army knife to give it a tighten - plunk, right between my legs to the bottom of 20+ feet of frog water.

couple of lessons learned 1. do not trust unfamiliar rod holders 2. put a float on your knife while tubing 3. do not lose the fly rod that your wife gave you on your first christmas.

silver lining is that the fly shop in fort smith had scott's on sale and i had an excuse to buy the replacement - "honey, i needed it and there's no sales tax in MT"

note: a fire has since burned down most of "downtown" Fort Smith. and remember, if you go to the Big Horn - bring your own beer. no booze sold on the reservation.

i feel better just telling that story. got it all out now.

bp

[Mike Churchill]

Well, misery loves company--especially miserable company. :shock: :oops:

Thank you gents for sharing your pain. It helps to realize it could always be worse!

My dad has been kind enough to offer to leave his rod (same model as the one I lost) at my house next time he comes to visit (he only goes out to fish with me these days), so I'll be able to avoid replacing it anytime soon.

Now, maybe I can still swing buying a 3-weight on the excuse that two of my young daughters want to start flyfishing, so I need a smaller rod for them... :evil:

[bigtj]

I've never had anything quite so bad, but I have seen 6 rods broken at one time (in a door) and heard about jet boats flipping and losing 6 rods in the river. It sucks losing gear like you did but it could have been worse I guess, if that's any help.

Any SCUBA divers want to help try to find Mike's outfit? It would be a fun dive at least!

[Rick J]

On one of our many trips to Silver Creek, Don Rotsma built a rod rack inside his suburban to hold our rods -attached to the internal gutters - well we decided to use it to hang other stuff as well - by the 3rd vest full of assorted fly boxes , rain gear, etc it became apparent that the rod rack was not designed to carry this weight. It became apparent by collapsing - Two of Don's Scott rods hit the back of his seat and snapped!!!!!

I considered renting him one of my rods that survived at some exorbitant fee but being the kind soul that I am I decided to reduce my usual rental fee as he indicated that I sould contemplate if I wanted to hitch hike back to California!

[lynnwhite44]

My buddy and I were fishing Pit #5. He just landed a little 12" rainbow and had his rod tucked under his arm. The rod slipped out from under his arm. He yelled to me down river to look for his rod but I never saw it. Another buddy was taking his pontoon boat out for it's maiden voyage on the Yuba. He launched at the Hwy 20 bridge. He hit the rapids above the bridge and flipped his boat. He grabbed the boat in one hand and the willows on the island with his other hand and was able to pull himself to shore. He managed to save his two rods and only lost a few supplies.

By the way if someone lost a reel on the Yuba I may have found it. let me know if it's yours.