Over the years and many days out fishing for trout I have witnessed some funny and strange mishaps which have resulted in a few tears being shed, sometimes in pain and sometimes laughter, but more often than not, both together.
Broken Tackle
As with myself I’m sure many fishers have had an off-day and broke their rod or reel or worse. On one occasion I broke 2 rods in one day while fishing Rosslynlee Fishery, near Edinburgh. The first one was a bit of bad luck in my opinion as it happened while casting out into the wind. I had a heavy-ish gold head lure tied on and was trying to punch it out into oncoming gusts when on the back cast I could see the lure coming flying straight back at me, on route to whack me square in the face. I flinched to the side slightly and brought my rod back round in front of my face when I heard “ting” of the gold head as it bounced off my rod.
I didn’t notice the damage at the time but on my next cast out my rod tip near enough dropped off into the water, cracked clean through on one side where the bead had hit it. Sore one! I must have been in a dazed stupor mourning my favourite rod for the rest of the day as I could do no right from then on.
Hooking myself in the finger with another wayward cast, catching no fish, and towards the end of the day I clumsily stumbled on the wet pier and brought my boot down on my old spare rod. It was snapped clean through as well! 2 in one luckless day! The latest rod was no big loss really but it just compounded the thought that I should have stayed in bed that morning. I, of course, proceeded on my way to the pub and got a fair few drinks down me that evening to cheer me up.
Lost & Found
While fishing another of my favourite haunts, Loganlea reservoir, up in the Pentland Hills, I witnessed an extremely funny case of one up to the fish as Alan, a friend of mine, lost his prized fishing rod, reel, line etc down in the depths. It is something that had so nearly happened to me on the same water last season and I’m definitely not going to make the same mistake again.
After casting his line out off the dam wall bank, Alan proceeded to have a small wander a few yards along the bank to have a blether with a mate, during which, a fish took his static lure and his reel starting whirring into life. The fish took with such force though, that his rod was soon moving out into the water, well out of reach of his flailing arms and shooting across the surface as the fish swam off. The rod was off like a torpedo too.. leaving quite a wake on the water and soon many anglers were witness to the spectacle and bellows of laughter could be heard around the banks.
To add insult to the injury, the fish must have took the reel down the end of the backing as the rod suddenly disappeared beneath the surface, only to pop back out again for a few seconds in the vertical upright position, before slowly sinking back down, almost as if it was giving its last wave goodbye to poor old Al. The old sod didn’t give up their though and was back at Loganlea every day throwing in a sinking line and trawling the water hoping to be re-united with his lost rod. He also had a note up in the lodge on site so that if any angler snagged upon it they would hopefully give him a call.
About a week later he did get that call! The floating line he had on the reel had somehow popped back up on the surface and a boat angler got hold of it and pulled the complete rig back in onto the boat, Rod! Reel! The Lot! All still in good condition too. How lucky was that. I think he weighed the boat angler in with a few pounds for his trouble as I wouldn’t have banked on seeing the rod ever again, especially in the dark depths of Loganlea.
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