I'm a lucky guy !

[GeekOutdoors]

Here's a long and funny one guys, with an happy ending ! Last Sunday, I went fishing fishing for trout with my good buddy. It was pouring rain and was pretty cold but we just needed to go fishing and that lake is beautiful, even under rain. So, we started to fish and, as an addicted rod collector, I brought a few of them. One of them is a Rapala Classic Trout 5'7" with a Plueger size 20 reel, this is a very light setup... Here's is the funny part... I put it back in the flushmount rod holder and took my paddle from the paddle holder and "splash" I heard... I first thought it was a Gatorade bottle but I soon saw the cork handle of my tiny rod going for the depth. This setup is so light I didn't feel it going out of the rod holder and the short handle was unforgiving, AGAIN ! This is the other funny part, this was the second time that exact rod went for a diving swim, the very first time was with my then roomate at trout opening in April '17 and I was lucky enough to saw it's golden accented guides in the crystal clear water and fish it back with another rod with a pike spoon w/ large treble hook on. Last Sunday I wasn't as lucky ? Since it was raining, impossible to see through the water and even after an hour of throwing big trebled stuff I wasn't able to retrieve the cursed rod. Since I didn't want to ruin the fishing day, we left the launch bay and went for the trout chase. The trout were on the chase but very subtly and my friend tried to hookset one in orbit (he looked like BASS guys overhooksetting their fish lol) and I managed to put one feisty brookie in the boat. I was still thinking about that ... rod the whole day since it was one of my favorite for tiny lures in a local small river. On our way back I hopelessly tried to find and boat it, without success. This is an high pressured lake and I was affraid someone else would find it. I hope it was someone in need that would find it at least. I started my "mourning process" and told my buddy on our way back home that I would just buy another same exact one or an equivalent and went for the chase while the big buddy was driving us back home. People that know me even just a little know I am babying my gear and I am very selective when buying rods so I wanted to find the exact same or as close as possible. I found out on Tuesday that the Classic Trout is discontinued and the only thing getting close enough to worth looking at was a St.Croix Premier 5'6" Light / Fast but no one around here has it and the cheapest I found was 175$. I also ordered a bunch of rod leashes, after fishing that rod twice I just need to understand what "leash it or lose it" means. Buddy told be about magnet fishing while paddling on the lake and I thought I could give it a try. So I went buying a welding magnet at Crappy Tire and packed my stuff, sonar, action cam and pole, used cell phone, rope, net, magnet, anchor and everything. Drove there yesterday, realized there was someone else on the lake that I hope were fishing the main lake, launched the yak and started to look at the Down Imaging. There is no much grass in this lake, especially that time of year as the water is still cold. I saw a / with a small circle near the bottom end. I tied the magnet on a rope with some loops and start my magnet swinging frenzy... After like 20minutes I felt something sticking to it (feels almost like a subtle bite) and lost it right at the boat. Dropped the magnet right there and felt the same sticking on the magnet... I very carefully "reeled" it back in and to my joy and stupefaction I saw a rod tip... It was muddied so I wasnt able to identify it right away but I pulled it out of the water and knew it was it ! It spent a whole week there without being found and was still working pretty good, I made a few test casts with it... I was so happy I was singing weird stuff and stop caring about the tons of mosquitos... Packed back and drove back home. I set the rod and reel to dry overnight and everything is working. Now here is the question, I know I'll have to service the reel as it spent a whole week in the drink, I'll also have to clean the rod a bit and especially the cork. I'd like to know what everybody use to clean the cork ? I plan on sealing it with U-40 after cleaning... Good idea ? PS. I'll make sure I leash my rods. I was already leashing the paddle and the net...

[GeekOutdoors]

On 6/9/2019 at 6:48 PM, Mike Wright said:

WOW! Quite a story Bro... Lossing a collected item is not easy I can feel it!

It wasn't properly collected but I own many combos and this one was pretty much my first educated pick so it has something special to it.

[Bankbeater]

Wow you were lucky. I’d try a Mr. Clean magic eraser on the cork. 

[GeekOutdoors]

9 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

Wow you were lucky. I’d try a Mr. Clean magic eraser on the cork. 

That's what I did, it turned out great !