LOST MY NEW ROD AND REEL!!

[Timbaux65]

Today I was at I 55 fishing and because of the way the boat was facing, I had to make a cast right handed...which I rarely do. My right hand..about 5 surgeries and a partially amputated finger.

Somehow I lost grip of the reel and it came out my hand and went into the water,, which is about 15 feet deep. How on earth can i get it back? its to dangerous to dive for it.

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

• I would get a large treble hook and drag the bottom criss-cross style...good chance you will snag it if there isn't a lot of trees and other debris...... 

[Leo Nguyen]

Sorry to hear that. Done that myself. My excuse, genetic inheritance of butter butter fingers on my mom's side..Like Jeffrey said, large treble hook, or claw type anchor. I always carry a 2.5lbs treble/claw anchor with me, with the fluke type, just for this reason.

[Timbaux65]

Remember..its a very snaggy place... I lost two diving lures trying to retrieve it. I did try the treble hook as well.

I type in soemthing on Google and this guy had an article about retrieving lost rod and reel. He uses a chain stringer..for stringing fish.. opens all the clips and casts it out,, then drags it across the bottom. My luck isnt that good but i will try.

i am so mad at myself.

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

Good luck...I would pull all the hooks out a little on the Stringer and maybe tie it to the bitter end of an anchor rope or some heavier nylon.....Hope you get it back Timbaux...

[Leo Nguyen]

I heard of the chain stringer during my trout hunt as well. Some guy lost his nice trout gear because a cat snagged it while it was camping in the holder. Luckily, he saw the slip float was floating about 200 ft from shore. He borrowed his buddy's heavy gear with the 25lbs line, put a nice 4ft chain stringer on, with 2 trebles at the end, including a 1oz beaver tail sinker. Tossed it out, slowly retrieved in a few times. Every time, tons of weeds and twigs came in. I think it was the 7 tried that he was able to nailed the line and yanked his gear in. The bonus, the 5lbs cat. The sunken gear snagged on the weeds below and held the fish in place for an hour before the gear was retrieved. Hope you can do the same. Use a heavy duty vinyl line if you're planning to use the chain method to counter the snag. Definitely the best of luck to you.

[Jeff Soto]

I had a big Bluegill pull one of my tiny microlite outfits off my float tube a few years ago, and I tried for 2 hours to snag it back with a heavy bass rod.  Never did get it back because I'm sure the fish just swam off with it somewhere.  Hope you get yours back. 

[Timbaux65]

Oh believe me, Jeff, those fish werent biting today. I might get back out there monday at the earliest. so happy with the new rod and reel now its gone.

[Walt Foreman]

I had a similar experience to Jeff's many years ago while fishing a 325-acre TWRA lake about forty miles from my hometown.  I had a Skyline 100% graphite ultralight rod - one of the nicest ultralights I've ever owned - lying on the gunwale as I took a bluegill of about 3/4 pound off the hook from my other rod, and suddenly I heard a scraping sound and looked up to see the rod spiralling down through the water...My grandfather and I tried for about an hour to snag it but no luck. 

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Ive seen snaggers, usually made of wood for catching hold of top water lures. Something similar could be made from a piece of pipe, I guess. Pipe welding rod and some time could do the trick. I guess it depends on how bad you want to outfit. And maybe the stringer idea would work.

In the future you might want to incorporate a wrist lanyard on your rods. It is, in fact, a good idea for all of us.

[dick tabbert]

Sorry to hear about your loss. I have a couple in the bottom of the lake myself and it's a fact it goes with the territory. We know it probably could happen sooner or later hope it never will but could  happen at any time. I had carpel tunnel surgery on both hands and sometimes I just drop whats in my hands. I know it could happen so I have to be extra careful, so far so good but as much as I cast I know sooner or later it will happen. Again it's an acceptable loss for the enjoyment I get out of the sport I love. I know eventually the odds will be agents me and I'll have another loss. My biggest nightmare was I'll be fishing with a 2 piece rod I'll cast and the rod will come apart I'll have a snag the line will break and now I own the bottom end of the rod. Finally that did happen to me. Now I no longer have 2 piece rods, the ones that were I glued together and that problem is remedied. Timbaux I'm sorry for your loss but if you fish lots guess what it's probably going to happen again. We will try our best to retrieve it but chances are it's not going to happen but we have to try and maybe we will be lucky. If we are lucky or not it's in our memory banks for us to think on later, one of them memories we won't forget but maybe would like to. But you know what were having fun even though we do have some temporary set backs we ain't going to quit fishing. Good luck on retrieving your rod and reel and GOOD FISHING..

[Timbaux65]

I got it back!

Took me about 20 mins but raking the fish stringer on bottom I was able to snag my line and pulll it all in.

Thanks all for your advice and encouragement.

[Leo Nguyen]

CONGRATS! Hope a bit of light maintenance will bring that baby back to it's former glory.