Horror Story

[Huntrava]

Here's a terrible experience that I need to get off my chest.

Last weekend I was out fishing for crappie in a new spot, and things were going well as I was loading up the boat while jigging spinners vertically over brush piles in 20-30 feet of water. At some point while reeling in a fish I started drifting into a buoy. Not wanting to get tangled in the buoy line, I engaged the trolling motor to steer clear while I landed and unhooked the fish. As a terrible, terrible fisherman, I'm unused to having a full stringer, and so I'm very unused to considering the effect of running the trolling motor with fish dangling near the end of the yak. As you can imagine, within just a few seconds there was a terrible thump thump thump thump from the trolling motor. I grabbed my controller to disengage the motor. Hisssss, pop!

Glancing behind me, I could see the remains of my stringer...and the unfortunate fish riding the stringer. Yes, they'd been sucked into the prop. The faint smell of heated electrical components let me know the fuse on my motor was blown when the stringer got snagged.

Here's where things go from bad to ugly. I glanced over to my other side just to see the butt end of my St. Croix Panfish Elite rod slip into the dark, chocolate water. For a brief moment I considered it: water is 42 degrees, I'm wearing waders, a belt, and a PFD, shore is about 50 meters...and I decided against it. So yes, there is now a St. Croix rod sitting at the bottom of the lake, and I'm still wondering whether I should have dived in after it.

Over the years I've become rather complacent about rod leashes, floats, etc. Frankly, a PA-12 is more like a bass boat than a kayak, so losing something overboard just doesn't happen. Until it does. Lesson learned.

The spot is marked on my GPS, and I'm going to make an effort to recover the rod, but the odds are slim. My wife is happy that I didn't jump in after it, and made me promise "...not to drown while trying to get that thing back."

[PigPen]

I ve almost lost 2 rods after dropping them overboard but have been able to dredge them up with my grappling hook anchor. I've have some leashes but get tired of having them leashed to me or them getting wrapped around stuff on the deck. I feel you..

[Big Mike]

Bummer to lose your stringer of fish and rod, really a crappie story. You made the wise move to not jump in. I’ve lost two Loomis rods to the fishing gods over the years, but have yet to lose one from the PA. They are big boats.

[nhunter344]

Go buy a snagging hook and drag it across the spot where you lost it. Ive recovered a few rods using this method.

[yakscientist]

I have floats on all my rods for scenarios like this one. I also like that their bright colors stick up a few feet above my kayak, so it may increase visibility slightly. They may not completely prevent the heavier combos from sinking, but at least they may slow them long enough for me to be able to grab them.

[J.A. Veil]

Sorry about your lost and damaged equipment. During the fall of 2019, I had one rod and reel combo dragged overboard by a pike in an upstate NY lake and another rod snapped by a large Spanish mackerel near Tampa. Nobody likes losing or breaking a rod, but it does happen some times. The way I look at my equipment is to "amortize" it. In essence, each time I use the equipment, I pretend I have rented it. Figure that your "rent" of the equipment is another cost like gasoline to drive to the launch, lures, lunch, etc. on every trip At some point, after many trips, I made up the value of the equipment. It does not replace the old gear, but gives a logical approach to dealing with the loss.

[Yak Fish]

I dropped a rod overboard one early spring day. I thought I put the rod in the holder, but I missed and watched it slip away. I anchored immediately and thought I'd dive for it. Water was cold but the air was warm. I stripped down and got in. Then I jumped right back out again. That was a mistake. I never did get that rod back.

[Oldbayrunner]

A few years ago at Janes Island I learned the hard way, if a fish has taken the rod and reel because it wasn't locked down Dont reach out to try to save it. That's how I wound up flipping my kayak in 42° water. Instead of losing 1 rod and reel I wound up losing 4, all my tackle I had with me and a $1000.00 battery. Items are much better secured now.

[ronaultmtd]

I had a $600 rod reel combo ripped out of the rod holder by a cow nose ray snagged on a $14.00 XR-14 XRap...it happened so fast it wasn’t funny. The rod holder was a friction adjustable RAM ball...I don’t use those anymore...and like John points out- it was like a charter fee to learn what not to do...we do what we do based on hard lessons we pay the price for...

[Nicole]

I’ve been putting off buying rod and paddle leashes just because I didn’t want to put out the money… Until now. I’m glad everything turned out OK for you. Please be careful, and be safe. Tackle and gear can be replaced, you cannot. Happy fishing! [emoji476]


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[FishMoken]

Glad you are ok. That is always number one. I've lost a rod overboard only one time. Set it on the deck of a sit inside and it just rolled right off. I couldn't help but laugh. I always sum it up that its bound to happen.

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[Shady]

I've lost rods a couple times turtling and have been able to recover nearly all of them by dragging a heavier jigheads along the bottom. You can increase your odds even more by tieing a couple on at once. I would try to get back to the location of loss sooner rather than later to limit exposure of the lost rod to the elements.

[Huntrava]

After spending an hour on Monday dragging a heavy metal stringer across the lake floor as part of a recovery effort, I can now absolutely say the rod is gone forever. The stringer met the same watery grave as the St. Croix rod, and is now hung securely on some submerged structure 40' below water. In some way, having searched for it gave me some necessary closure despite coming up empty handed, and I'm ready to forget the event ever happened. Though I'm not going to forget the lesson.

[mchottie]

I prefer to fish in ~3-5fow, where recovery is easy.

I can't imagine losing serious gear in 40+ fow. i'd write that off as taxes to the fishing gods, and never make the same mistake twice.

truth be told, i turtled my first beginner 12' SOT yak at a S|L meet&greet, and was very fortunate to only lose an $80 knife and some cheap sunglasses. lesson learned quick, and will never make that mistake again (un-leased equipment) I feel like thats a noob right-of-passage for fishing...