A Cautionary Tale

[John Bailey]

Richard with Bailey the dog and fine Wye chub​

A month ago Richard and Dave came fishing with me down on the Wye. Two lovely blokes I have known forever and a river slowly coming back into form. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, we’d got a swim going nicely for chub in the main, with the very occasional barbel, and prospects looked good. At 1.00pm, I excused myself as I was meeting up with Mr Whitehouse to show him a piece of the River Arrow. All looked in order and I had no qualms.

Dave in action​

Whitehouse to the rescue​

Paul and I got back to the swim before 4.00pm to find the lads still there, but Dave as a pure spectator. His rod? You guessed it. An hour earlier it had javelined into space far faster than Dave could make a move to intercept it. Gone and lost forever we presumed. I set him up with a rod of mine – and strict instructions to hold the damned thing this time – and the session drifted to its close.

Three Musketeers​

Forward four weeks and lure fishing whizz Robbie Northman comes to the stretch to give the perch a look. Nothing massive to report but one cast produces… Dave’s lost rod. A hundred yards downriver from where it went in, and still in decent working order.

A testimony to the quality of Shimano gear and to Robbie’s ability to work a lure deep. Now the rod is waiting for Dave to come back and sit a bit closer to it in the future!

The rod and reel still functional after three weeks in the river​

The post 'A Cautionary Tale' first appeared on FishingMagic Magazine.

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[ian g]

I had a similar experience with my lad when he was about 8 or 9 . I had told him a couple of times about wandering a little when fishing a local pool . His face when a carp pulled his rod in was a picture. Luckily I managed to cast over his line and retrieve the rod and the carp . much to both ours relief.

 

[Steve King]

One night on the Kennet I was just thinking about packing it in for the night (I’d had a very successful session) when the rod tip quivered once before the rod catapulted over the rest!

I did a Basil Fawlty in a panic dance for a moment before grabbing the landing net. Fortunately the rod came to rest past a clump of trees and I was able to net the handle and reel.

There was still a plump 8lb barbel attached!

 

[theartist]

It's well worth noting that even paired with a heavy reel the average rod as far more bouyant than you would think and can be pulled quite a way by relatively small fish. My dad conducted this experiment the other year with a 3lb chub much to my initial dismay