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How long will a musky rod float?


Rizzo

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Spent last week at Pigeon Lake, and managed to get out fishing a few hours each day. Well don't you know on the first evening we are there, my partner manages to hook my Compre/Record Combo which was up front with me on the far side of the windshield (he was on the back casting deck of a 16.5 foot boat) and tosses it overboard. It only went out around 10 feet or so, but the wind was pushing us away from it. I suggested he dive in and grab it but he felt he could hook it. After about 20 seconds it was starting to sink and was now 15 to 20 feet away. With him not diving in, I made the decision to go in after it. By the time I swam out to it she was gone, and since we were in 10 feet of water and low visibility there was no chance of finding it. Long story short, if a rod goes overboard, and if you don't hook it in the first couple of seconds better jump in cause she's going down!

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Many rods are pulled off piers, either by fish or by motor boats snagging lines as they pass. I have never seen one recovered by the angler that lost it. Rods lost from a moving boat wouldn't float long and once sunk would be almost impossible to retrieve.

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Same thing happened to me a couple weeks ago with a decent baitcast combo. Except it was my stupidity. I left the lure dangling near the trolling motor prop and the TM decided to whip it into the water. You're right you have about 30 seconds to react or its GONZO!

 

I've now attached screw eyes to the bottom of my rod handles and clip them on a metal stringer in the boat just in case.

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You can drag a lure across the bottom in hopes to snag it. It can be done, not too difficult to recover it with some patience. If it's windy or very weedy though, might be a tough one.

 

Yep, you never know. I was fishing for aurora trout on 2011 opener with my cousin. We trolled around for hours and the only thing we caught all day was some guy's Little Cleo which had lunch meat on the hook... and was still attached to an ultralight Ugly Stik with a Shimano Sedona reel. We found the owner and brought him our catch.

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I told him about 3 times in the 20-30 seconds we had "Jump in...thats about $400 in rod/reel" but he thought he could snag it. He now regrets that decision (because he has agreed to replace it). As far as getting it back...the gps was off at that time so we couldn't mark it, and it was 10 feet of water where the last 4 feet were weeds so would have been pretty tough to either find visually or by dragging a bulldawg

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When I'm fishing for muskies and am alone in the boat I have a set routine I follow to the letter that just makes life easier and safer for both myself & the fish.

 

I cast from the front deck and leave all my tools in the back of the boat along with my opened net. When I hook a fish, I work my way to the back and net the fish. I leave the fish in the net, in the water, and remove the hooks, and while still holding onto the net handle , I lay the rod on the rear deck with the bait hanging over the opposite side of the boat to keep it outta my way.

 

If I want a picture, I then turn on the auto on the camera, lift the fish from the net, get the picture and then release the fish.

 

A few years back I was on the West Arm of Nippissing and hooked this pretty lady. Everything went as planned and worked well.

 

After I released the fish I was putting the tools away and realized my rather spendy Calcutta/St. Croix combo along with my favorite $25 musky spinnerbait was nowhere to be see.....what the heck ?? :dunno:

 

I look about 20 feet back behind the boat and there's about 4 inches of cork sticking out from the water. Run to the front of the boat, fire up the troll motor and spin the boat around and get back to the rod before it disappears forever.

 

She was definitely a nice fish and worthy of a picture but not sure she would have been worth the price of a new fish'n combo. I'm still not sure how the pole ended up in the drink, but I'm much more careful now when I'm laying it on the rear deck :lol:

 

Cnv0084.jpg

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...and worst of all, forgot to mention this part, besides our rough first night the fishing wasn't great for the rest of the week either. Water was up in the mid 80's for a few of the days, but probably averaged around 82. Better for the fish that we didn't catch too many, mortality might have been an issue.

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Well on the may long weekend my cuzz pulled up a rod with a cell phone attached to it.

The other cuzz pulled up an old ice fishing rig complete with lure line and shingle.

 

No joke.

We always get together on the long weekends and fish.

 

Don.

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Many rods are pulled off piers, either by fish or by motor boats snagging lines as they pass. I have never seen one recovered by the angler that lost it. Rods lost from a moving boat wouldn't float long and once sunk would be almost impossible to retrieve.

I had guests up @ Great Bear that were using some of the lighter duty Down Easter rod holders.

We were on a fly out trolling T-60 Flatfish on musky sized gear for big lakers.

Part way through the day one of the holders failed and snapped because of the pressure exerted by the large flatfish. The rod disappeared instantly down into 30' deep 40 degree water.

I immediately did a big circle with the boat and caught the line with the other rod. :D

 

A little while later the other rod holder failed in the same way!! :o

I repeated the circle maneuver with the same results!!!! :D

In the space of 2 hours we had two broken rod holders, two lost rod and reel combos and two rescued rod and reel combos.

 

Moral of the story: It can be done!!!! ;)

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If it makes you feel any better, last year on Bass opener on Rice Lake, I lost an HD camcorder (with internal hard drive) and the tripod it was attached to after forgetting to take it off the back deck before taking off.... lmao.

Thank god for GoPro's!

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When limeyangler came up here fishing with me we stopped for a shore lunch and while the food was on he casted from shore. Withing a few minutes he had hooked a rod of my sons that was lost months back! And it was a spot I drag jigs at all the time, go figure. The pic was posted on here two yeas ago. Reel was junk but the rod is still working just fine. Thanks again Simon! Sorry to hear rizzo, that just plain sucks

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Gezz Rizzo, you didn't have a marker buoy? I think i'd have dragged my anchor around for awhile or put on a heavy jig in the weeds. At 400, I would have camped out in the boat till I found it.

Sorry to hear your loss Rizzo, that even pisses me off, and it wasn't mine :unsure:

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nope no marker buoy nothing. We were only going out for an hour or two on the first day of arrival. It was starting to get late, so we drove out to a weed bed we knew in 10 fow (no gps required) and started casting. when I'm familiar with a spot I like to shut off all my electronics, and drift with the wind if possible...stealth mode I call it. So we couldn't really mark the spot, and with all the weeds we figured pretty much impossible to get a big lure in there to snag it.

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