A fishing misadventure
Looking over the 15 inches of new snow in our yard, it’s time to reflect on last summer and a real fishing misadventure.
It was a beautiful cool July morning on Leech Lake with a slight southeasterly breeze. A perfect morning for catching a few walleye. I was fishing with two of my favorite people; my son in-law Mitch and grandson Mitchell.
We pulled up to a reef where I’d been catching some real nice fish and started back trolling along a drop off into 22 feet of water. This was a special day for me as it was one of the few days in the summer that I took my “elite” fishing gear. This is gear I never take with customers because it just might get stepped on and I never want to take that gamble with my favorite rod and reel. After all, this rig is expensive. How expensive? Let’s just say both my grandfathers would roll over in their graves if they knew what I paid for it. The best part of this rig is the sensitivity. This rod could feel a minnow burp. It could actually feel stuff coming out the other end of a minnow too. That’s sensitive.
We weren’t fishing five minutes when my son in-law, hooked a nice walleye. I needed to grab the net so I reeled my line in, laid my rod down at the back of the boat and grabbed and netted an 18-inch walleye. Just as I finished, I turned around to see my rod handle going over the back of the boat. I lunged backward and just missed the handle. My line was just long enough to get wrapped in the trolling motor. I quickly shut the motor off, reached down to grab the line, but it was all gone except for about 18 inches. My “elite” rod and reel were gone, in 20 feet of water. My heart sank, my wallet felt lighter.
We marked the spot on my GPS and went back to the cabin to get an underwater camera. We hooked up a big treble hook on another one of my trolling rods and went back to the exact spot and started trolling for my rig. We weren’t trolling four minutes when my son-in-law, hooked on to something. “Bang”, my trolling rod snapped in half. It got caught in some rocks. Now I’m down two rods and one reel. We searched for forty-five minutes with no luck. We finally gave up. Somehow that rod just disappeared. It wasn’t just that I lost an “elite” rod but I also lost an “elite reel” that is no longer in production.
That was the first rod and reel I’ve ever lost in a boat. I hope it never happens again. My lesson learned, slow down, reel in the line and then get the net. No walleye is worth throwing away an “elite” rod and reel. As my Grandfather Gildow always said, “Only spend money on equipment you can afford to lose.” He would be laughing now, but I didn’t find it too amusing.
