Let’s talk stories. Equipment fails with a fish on?

[Darth-Baiter]

Yesterday. I casted out a wacky and set the rod down on the deck of my kayak.  Not sure what I was thinking. I see my rod move, pick it up and reel up slack and pin the fish.  Head shaking ensued.  Both me and the bass.  

 

my reel was making an awful racket. My new Vanford spinning reel.  Noisy, and there was resistance cracking the handle. It was a struggle to turn the handle. On video, my friend even  asks, “what wrong with your reel?”  He heard it.  I look down and I’m not sure how it happened. My line was wrapped up outside the bail!  Oh no!  The video is funny. Me panicking and surprisingly cuss-free. The line was wrapping up around the spool on the outside side of the bail.  I manage to horse in a good bass. I donkey leash it, and untangle the mess.  Not my most elegant fish landing.  Oh boy.   I usually tug the slack up against the spool after I close the bail.  I missed it this time.  Lucky. 
 

 

 

[GreenPig]

Not a reel failure but I had one of my Abu 6500C3's brass drive shaft gall on the stainless shaft while fighting very large bass on a 9" 5.5oz swimbait. I figure it wasn't lubed during assembly. It literally locked up on me, the very large bass threw my swimbait and I had to hand line it in. Since that day I've upgraded my reels and have meticulously maintained my reels which includes cleaning & lubing out of the box new reels. Did I mention it was a VERY LARGE BASS that taught me that lesson.

[Bluebasser86]

The one time I tried BPS fluoro, set the hook on a fish in a brushpile with 17lb fluoro and my line broke in the reel. Hurried up and grabbed my line before the fish swam off and could feel it was still there but hung in the brush. My buddy got a cell phone video of me carefully handlining a 3lb bass out of a brushpile. 

[Smalls]

I accidentally hit the thumb bar as I set the hook on a fish. The spool instantly blew up, and I didn't think I hooked the fish. Took me over 10 minutes, but I got the backlash out, and as I'm reeling line back in I felt some wigglin on the other end. Apparently it was a good hookset, cause the fish was still on. 

[Ski]

[the reel ess]

1 hour ago, Smalls said:

I accidentally hit the thumb bar as I set the hook on a fish. The spool instantly blew up, and I didn't think I hooked the fish. Took me over 10 minutes, but I got the backlash out, and as I'm reeling line back in I felt some wigglin on the other end. Apparently it was a good hookset, cause the fish was still on. 

In that case, if at all possible, it's best to reel the fish in over the backlash. I've had to do this a number of times after skipping a bait under something. Usually, it's just a little overrun.

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

The one time I tried BPS fluoro, set the hook on a fish in a brushpile with 17lb fluoro and my line broke in the reel. Hurried up and grabbed my line before the fish swam off and could feel it was still there but hung in the brush. My buddy got a cell phone video of me carefully handlining a 3lb bass out of a brushpile. 

The first fluoro I got hold of was garbage as well. It was rotten and breaking in no time. It really turned me off to it.

I can't remember a specific time when I had a reel or rod failure fighting a fish. But many times I set the hook to nothing. Just broke off. I used to only change line when it started breaking. Once I got into a school of 3 lb bass and was wearing them out on a Spook. I caught 5 on 5 casts. On the 6th I got a bite and that fish got my only Spook. Lesson: Don't get so excited you forget to check your line if using mono-and buy more Spooks. I quickly tied on a Pop R, but they had no interest in it. That bite was over. Funny, because I had a neighbor with a bass boat trolling down the bank toward me and I caught those fish right in front of him. He said "I think you know something I don't." I assured him I just lucked up and came across a school of very hungry fish.

[lo-fi-hi-fi]

[fishballer06]

I bought one of the St. Croix Avid X rods back when they were released. First day out I was throwing a chatterbait with it. I make a really long cast and take one crank and I hook into my first fish. I set the hook and I can tell its a decent sized fish. I immediately notice that my reel isn't securely attached to the reel seat and the reel is on the verge of falling off the rod. 

 

So I'm frantically trying to hold a reel that basically isn't attached to a rod, all while fighting the fish. I eventually got that fish in and I probably looked like a 4 year old reeling in their first fish ever. The fish ended up being a 30+" pike. 

 

It turns out that I had received a lemon reel seat from the factory that was basically stripped from the factory. So I had to get a warranty replacement and its been fine since.  

[scaleface]

2 hours ago, Smalls said:

I accidentally hit the thumb bar as I set the hook on a fish. The spool instantly blew up, and I didn't think I hooked the fish. Took me over 10 minutes, but I got the backlash out, and as I'm reeling line back in I felt some wigglin on the other end. Apparently it was a good hookset, cause the fish was still on. 

I've done that .

 

I once set the hook and the baitcaster fell off the rod . Had to hand reel the fish in .

[TheBasslayer]

I’ve never snapped a rod on a fish, but this weekend I snapped my Fenwick Eagle in half because I tried to pull my lure out of a thin, flexible branch. I’ve also snapped a St. Croix Triumph on some weeds, but that seemed to be defective from the beginning, because the tip top fell off a couple of times.

[huZZah]

Have an old Daiwa reel that I hooked a good size fish on and the anti reverse immediately breaks. So the fish starts running. When I grab the handle to stop it the handle breaks. So I grab the line. The line breaks.  So I leave.  Figured if I stayed a tree would fall on me or something.  A car fender bendered me 3 houses from my driveway. 
 

That reel sits on a shelf in my garage as a reminder of when things go wrong…take a different way home. 

[gim]

I've never had a catastrophic rod or reel failure while hooking or fighting a fish.  I have had several failures with specific hooks or jigs over the years though.  One recent example comes to mind.  When I first started fishing a ned rig, I used the original z-man mushroom head jigs.  The hooks are made of fairly light wire material and if you set the hook too hard, they bend.  This happened to me more than once on what I presumed to be sizable fish.  After I realized the low grade quality of these, I switched to a more stout version and have not had an issue.  I also stopped setting the hook as hard as normally would when using a ned rig.

 

I've also straightened other hooks out during a battle with muskies when I was bass fishing.  They have a iron jaw and some bass hooks I use for finesse soft plastics just can't hold up to those large, toothy predators.

[Junk Fisherman]

30 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I've never had a catastrophic rod or reel failure while hooking or fighting a fish.  I have had several failures with specific hooks or jigs over the years though.  One recent example comes to mind.  When I first started fishing a ned rig, I used the original z-man mushroom head jigs.  The hooks are made of fairly light wire material and if you set the hook too hard, they bend.  This happened to me more than once on what I presumed to be sizable fish.  After I realized the low grade quality of these, I switched to a more stout version and have not had an issue.  I also stopped setting the hook as hard as normally would when using a ned rig.

 

After having this issue with Ned rig hooks breaking, I started making my own jigs with Mustad hooks.  I haven't broken and hooks and have straightened a few out when hung in wood.  Plus, the hooks are about 0.20$ each.

[5/0]

4 hours ago, Ski said:

Those old Bill Dance videos are so hilarious! I liked the one where he snagged a tree branch. While poking at it with his rod tip a snake fell into his boat.

[5/0]

Was fishing a popper on a spinning outfit. A really nice spot blew up on it. I’m reeling him in and my reel freezes, panic time. So I’m watching the fish do various acrobatics and horsing the reel trying to get it to crank. I eventually look down and see that the bail had caught in another rod tip, snapped it off and was jammed in the reel. I got it out and was able to land the fish, close to 4 lbs. Luckily the broken rod was a 20 yr old Daiwa and not my brand new Champion XP laying right next to it!

[Kenny Yi]

6 hours ago, Smalls said:

I accidentally hit the thumb bar as I set the hook on a fish. The spool instantly blew up, and I didn't think I hooked the fish. Took me over 10 minutes, but I got the backlash out, and as I'm reeling line back in I felt some wigglin on the other end. Apparently it was a good hookset, cause the fish was still on. 

once I was frogging, casted out and a fish blew up the frog on the landing, I set the hook without engaging the reel :,(

[PressuredFishing]

Never really had an equipment fail, although the accasional lazy knot tie lost me a 3lber, but I wash fishing 2lb line lol. Have had some reels give out in antireverse when wrenching in fish from cover but it's has never made me lost that fish, the gears just slipped probably. As for rods I have never broke one or at least not yet.

[WVU-SCPA]

Don't remember if it was an HMX or HMG, was replaced by Fenwick with a Techna which I'm not the biggest fan of. 

 

Hit on the drop in 20'ish of water, reeled tight and swung for the fences.  Butt end snapped against my side making for a fun battle. 

 

[geo g]

I once took a friend from work out fishing for the first time.  I asked him if he wanted a bait caster, or a spinning reel to use?  He picked the spinner, so I told him I'll cast it out, spray the line, and give it for you to work.  I cast a Texas rigged Fluke into the pad field and then handed him the reel.  

I moved up to the front deck and picked up my rod and reel.  While rigging my bait I hear a loud splash coming from the pad field.  I look over to see my friend hand lining a big bass toward the boat.  I said why aren't you using the rod and reel?  He said, it just felt better doing it my way.

The fish weighed just over 8 lbs, and 24" long.  The first cast of the day, before the sun came up.  We laughed for an hour after landing the big girl.  I was shocked he managed to get it out of the weeds without a pole or reel.  It took him a long time to live down this episode from the other fisherman at work.  Life is a constant learning experience!

[Smalls]

7 hours ago, the reel ess said:

In that case, if at all possible, it's best to reel the fish in over the backlash.

There was no reeling that line in. It blew up baaaad. I would have just hand lined him in, but I didn't know he was still on. I was pretty sure I whiffed the hook set when I decided to spontaneously expel all the line off my spool.

[RenzokukenFisher]

I've been lucky enough (and just haven't fished long enough yet) to not have any equipment failures with pricey gear like rods, reels, watercraft etc., but for some time I had the curse of not setting drag on the first hookset. In the excitement of getting on the water I forgot to set my drag multiple times and it would usually result in a painful sounding "szzzzz" on the hookset followed by 2 or 3 handshakes from the fish and "poof", they're gone.

 

Nowadays I set my drag at the launch pretty much religiously lol

Edited June 29, 2021 by RenzokukenFisher
Needed to add vocabulary

[InfantryMP]

6 hours ago, scaleface said:

I've done that .

 

I once set the hook and the baitcaster fell off the rod . Had to hand reel the fish in .

Yea me too...multiple times unfortunately. 

[TnRiver46]

The only one that sticks out in my memory is for some reason I made the mistake of taking an ultra lite with 4 lb test to lake fork. And then made the second mistake of actually casting it, mr big bass  grabbed the little crappie jig and snapped the line effortlessly. I left that rod at the campsite for the rest of the trip…..,

[Bankbeater]

The only one I can think of off hand happened when I wasn't reeling in a fish.  I had just cleaned my Abu Garcia 3600 black max round reel the day before, and I had been fishing with it all day without any problems.  I make a cast, start reeling the bait it, and the thing literally starts falling apart, as I'm reeling the bait in. The side came off and the spool fell out.  I had an empty sandwich baggie in my tackle box, so I put all of the parts in that.  When I got home I put the reel back together and then made sure all the screws were in tight.

[Log Catcher]

I missed getting a hookset on a fish with a Revo S gen 3 because after making a cast it wouldn't kick the thumbar up and engage the spool. I had two of them and they both had this problem. I got rid of them and haven't bought an Abu Garcia reel since then. 

 

I also had a backlash in a reel while throwing a crankbait. While I am picking it out a bass hit the bait while it was laying on top of the water. It jumped two or three times while I got the backlash out and landed the fish.