Rod/reel overboard

[LonnieP]

Two of my rods got tangled up on the deck of my Pond Prowler yesterday. Finally got them untangled and my Tatula SV on a Zillion rod went down in 9 foot of water. I tried dragging the bottom for a hour or so with no luck. I feel sick.

[NHBull]

20 minutes ago, LonnieP said:

Two of my rods got tangled up on the deck of my Pond Prowler yesterday. Finally got them untangled and my Tatula SV on a Zillion rod went down in 9 foot of water. I tried dragging the bottom for a hour or so with no luck. I feel sick.

Heck, I have dove for a crank bait in 9 feet of water???

[LonnieP]

4 hours ago, NHBull said:

Heck, I have dove for a crank bait in 9 feet of water???

Yeah.. I thought about diving in, but I didn’t feel comfortable jumping in the muddy water when I was by myself. I marked a waypoint and plan on going back and trying to snag it.

[Randy Price]

About 16 years ago my best friend and I were walleye fishing in N. Wis. and dragging jig and minnows on the bottom of the lake.  All of a sudden he yells "there's one" and pulls and up comes a vintage '50's or early '60's rod and reel.  Surprisingly the reel still worked.  It was some old baitcaster with braid line.  The rod had seen better days.

[RealtreeByGod]

Only rod I've ever lost was an Ugly Stik with a 30 buck Gander Mtn. reel on it, so I wasn't super upset because it gave me a reason to upgrade. 

 

Last trip on the kayak, I came *this* close to dunking and/or snapping my brand new St. Croix Triumph on 3 seperate occasions, which I would've probably been tempted to go in after. Also lost a 150 dollar Leatherman which was absolutely devastating. 

[E-DOG]

8 hours ago, Randy Price said:

About 16 years ago my best friend and I were walleye fishing in N. Wis. and dragging jig and minnows on the bottom of the lake.  All of a sudden he yells "there's one" and pulls and up comes a vintage '50's or early '60's rod and reel.  Surprisingly the reel still worked.  It was some old baitcaster with braid line.  The rod had seen better days.

odd, I'd expect the reel to be toast and the rod to be functional

[Jleebesaw]

It just happened to me last Sunday. I didnt even know it happened. We fished a couple of humps. We were there for about a half hr. When we were ready to move I went to strap my rods down and one was missing. 

    At least it was a relatively cheap rod and real. BPS rod. The real was an abu garcia that I have had for years. It wasnt very expensive, but I really liked that real. 

    I bought a sweet abu garcia revo sx and a fenwick elite tech. That's my new dropshot rig. I can't wait to try it out tomorrow. Probably get skunked on the most expensive rod and real I've ever owned!

[Hillbilly Bennett]

I lost a Duckett Micro Magic I had paired with a Revo SX. Had a 3/4 oz jig on it and it sunk like a stone in 30 feet of murky water. My buddy was driving, hit some wake when we were blasting off in a tournament and it bounced right out from under the rod tie down. We dragged for about 10 minutes but didn’t want to waste the tournament time. I came back the next day and drug treble hooks and weights for about 4 hours and never got it back. Caught all kinds of trash and junk but no rod. 

[Alex from GA]

Along with several rods and reels anchors and a phone I've lost over the years a couple of months ago I dropped the cover to my outboard in my dock in 4' of water.  The bottom has about 3' of silt build up so I don't go in it.  The next morning I got my underwater camera out, located it and brought it up with a big treble hook.

[DanielG]

Last spring I was leaning over the bow and a wave hit. $500 glasses plopped into the water and became invisible. They were 2 months old. Had to repurchase.... not a rod but....

Today I have my glasses chain on my dash. Never take the boat out without them on.

[dumfish]

My avid and stratic went overboard 3yrs. Ago in 10 ft. of water. Spent an hour or so fishing it out using a Spro Aruku 85.

[N Florida Mike]

I went camping/fishing with my middle son one time and got up at the crack of dawn. He was still asleep so I decided to go down the lake for a little while. I pulled into a small cove and slowly cruised along until I saw a nice fish blow up on something. I killed the motor excitedly grabbed my  rod, but my sons reel handle was between my line and rod. So it flipped overboard. I quickly went to anchor but the anchor was gone!

So I tried to stay where I was but the wind was blowing. I was about 150 feet off the bank in about 6 feet of water. I said a prayer and jumped in . Walked around for about 10 minutes hanging on to the boat and stepped on it !!!

[haggard]

Mask and snorkel might be the ticket here. I lost a rod/reel in 6 ft of yucky water last month, went back a couple times to try snagging it, no luck. Third time back I brought a mask and snorkel. Put on the PFD and floated face down on the surface looking for it (bright sunny day helps), with a 6 ft pole to prod the bottom so I didn't have to dive down much. Had the combo back in ten minutes. Spotter on the bank just in case.

 

 

[NYWayfarer]

I lost a rod and reel over the side of my kayak last year. Luck was with me and I was able to retrieve it without getting into the water.

 

A few things that worked in my favor:

 

Water was crystal clear

It was lost in less than 10' of water

The reel was white and easy to spot on the bottom

 

That last part made me think about the crazy neon rod colors of my Mach Crush and Mach II combos. Not only do they help boaters see me at a distance but if lost overboard in clear water they are easy to spot.

[Dwight Hottle]

I have only lost one rod & reel overboard. A calais DC on a St Croix legend elite rod. We tried retrieving it for over a half hour but no luck. It resides with the gators in SE Florida. Hurt like hell. 

[Russ E]

I posted this in another thread, but this rod and reel overboard story was my most memorable.

 

I was throwing an ol monster worm into brushiles that were around 10 feet deep.

I got a snag and was maneuvering the boat to free the bait.

As the boat swung around in the wind the rod slipped out of my hand.

I watched a $300.00 combo sink into the lake.

I had a small folding anchor in the boat, so I decided to throw it into the vicinity of the snag.

on the first try I hooked the brushpile. 

I pulled up a christmas tree and my rod was laying on top.

Hardest part was getting the anchor out of the brushpile after I reteived the rod.

 

This is my new rod retreiver.

[Hawkeye21]

I just flipped my kayak towards the end of a tourney Saturday.  Had 6 of my 8 rods go under.  I spent a good hour finding 5 of those 6 that went under.  I felt very lucky to find that many back.  I also lost my net and sunglasses with that rod.  Could've been much worse.

[Hillbilly Bennett]

22 hours ago, Hawkeye21 said:

I just flipped my kayak towards the end of a tourney Saturday.  Had 6 of my 8 rods go under.  I spent a good hour finding 5 of those 6 that went under.  I felt very lucky to find that many back.  I also lost my net and sunglasses with that rod.  Could've been much worse.

Kayaks and I don’t go together. A few years ago I went with my wife on a float trip that the local tourism office where she works puts on. She asked me to bring my Go Pro camera to get some footage for the tourism website. About halfway through the 15 mile paddle I managed to roll the kayak and lost the $200 camera in the deepest part of the river. I tried to find it but there was no getting it back. But compared to what comes next, that is nothing! Fast forward to a year later. My fishing buddy and I decided to kayak fish a stretch of the river we never had fished before in an excellent smallmouth river about an hour from where we live. I’d checked it out on google earth and it looked smooth, safe and not swift at all. It looked Perfect for kayak fishing, except for one small stretch that I couldn’t see. It was covered by heavy tree growth so the satellite couldn’t get a clear shot of what it looked like but we went for it, assuming it was just like rest of the river we could research and assuming we could paddle to shore and drag the kayaks if it looked too rough. We started the peaceful, serene float and immediately started slaying the smallmouth. As we neared the hidden stretch of river I caught a beautiful 18 inch spotted bass and we were in fishing heaven...until we paddled around the sharp bend. The river narrowed extremely quickly, got super fast and turned to straight whitewater before we knew what was happening. Needless to say two cheap fishing kayaks aren’t cut out for shooting that kind of stuff and we both rolled over while desperately trying to paddle to the bank. I crashed off of no less than a dozen boulders and got wrapped up in my fishing line and the rope that held my small kayak anchor as I bounced through the section of the river that we later learned the local whitewater crowd calls “The Meat Grinder.” (No joke! The friggin Meat Grinder!) I finally got stuck behind a huge rock at the bottom of the rough stuff and was luckily facing down stream so I was able to poke my head up and get some air while I struggled against the raging current to wallow my hogtied butt on to the rock. After a few minutes of struggling I was on the rock and was out of the water. I was able to survey the damage and had lost my new Costa Cayan sunglasses, my hat, my shoes, my wedding band, a whole host of plastics and hardbaits and even a small chunk of skin and shinbone. I had broken my new Lew’s Custom speed stick but was able to get my reel back as the popper I had been using was snagged in my shorts right in the most delicate of areas (I have no idea how the trebles didn’t snag any, uh...skin, but I’m eternally grateful for that!) and I was tangled in about 30 yards of line and 10 yards of rope where I had rolled over and over down the rapids. My buddy had rolled a little further down stream and he also lost a bunch of tackle and broken his fishing rod but was in pretty good shape except for his twisted knee and a pretty good cut he got from bouncing his head off of a rock. We searched down stream in the smooth, deep pool below the rapids but only found a few of our lures and one of my shoes floating close to the shore before licking our wounds and dragging the yaks back to where we could paddle to the truck. That was my last time in a kayak and if I ever think about getting back in one I just rub my finger over the scar and the missing chunk of bone in my shin. Several people have asked what it was like and I tell them that it was like being in a washing machine full of bowling balls. Please, don’t do what we did and kayak on a river that you really don’t know. We were very lucky to get out of there with our lives. 

[J Francho]

I lost this combo overboard years ago, in around 17 FOW with limited visibility.  Dropped a way point, came back with a large, weighted treble hook, and got it back.  None the worse for wear, but needed a cleaning!

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/Family/Fishing-Journal/i-xX4xLPG/0/2dea303d/X2/IMG_0752-X2.jpg

 

 

[WRB]

With a bass towing the rod and reel around there isn't any way to know where it is if you don't retreive it right away.

The metal clip stringer suggested is your best choice, a weighted grapple hook works if you have it handy. 

The OP did all he could using a structure spoon with a treble hook, the odds were low unless hooking the line and hoping it slides down snagging the rod.

The rod floats work if you use them, I don't like them.

Several years ago I took out a freind out fishing and he had a spin casting outfit which was ok with me except the line was old and he had nothing but trouble using it. So....I gave him a spinning outfit out of my locker to use and you guest it he kicked overboard. The problem the outfit I handed him was my sons favorite rod. I tossed a bouy marker where the rod went in the water and rigged up a heavy structure spoon, we were in about 35' of water on a steep break. About 30 minutes without any luck I gave up and pulled in the bouy marker and the weight a strip of lead that tends to spin had snagged the line, got the rod back.

Tom

[bigbill]

If my son was with me and that happened he’d go swimming for sure. He cracks us up he shimmied out on a tree limb to save a stick lure and rolled off the branch into the water he went.

 

the three of us had a panfish tournament there was bobbers stuck in trees everyone was casting over everyone. I was on the ground laughing it was better than bill dance bloopers.