WOODS "N" WATER: Losing can often lead to a find

LOST: One fishing rod and reel.

Finder can contact me and I will return it to the owner, Joe “Sonny” Drauss of Meriden.     

A lost fishing rod and reel is not all that uncommon, but sometimes the circumstances of losing them can be memorable.

Joe Drauss was fishing up at Mirror Lake in Hubbard Park one day about a week ago with his grandson (who will remain nameless). They had fished there a couple of times and have had some success. This time he took a short walk and left the grandson in charge of the fishing rigs. 

When he came back the grandson and his girlfriend were acting a little embarrassed. Joe asked what was going on.

“We lost your fishing rod, Grampa,” the grandson replied.

Joe asked how that happened.

“We had the rod laying on the edge of the wall when it took off like a shot. It was in the water so fast, I never had a chance to grab it! But don’t worry, I’ll buy you a new one.”

Joe laughed. “Don’t worry about it. I have many more at home. But did you learn anything?”

His grandson looked at him quizzically trying to fathom what Joe had just asked him. Joe repeated the question.

“Did you learn anything from this?”

Joe finally explained the answer to his question.

“When you are fishing like this with a baited hook and you are not holding your rod, you should leave the bail open so that if a fish runs with it, the line will spool out without taking the rod with it.”

Lesson learned.

It brought back a flood of memories of fishing rigs lost and “nearly” lost.

One of the funniest happened to my brother Pete many years ago while he was fishing with our uncle, John “Puppy” Poposki. Uncle Pup and Pete had become fishing buddies and were fishing for flounder in one of their favorite saltwater spots.

Brother Pete was using one of Uncle Pup’s brand new saltwater rods and, for some reason, it slipped out of Pete’s hands and disappeared down into the depths of the ocean.

“Uncle Pup just sat there glaring at me,” Pete recalled. “He never said a word until he reached into his tackle box and came out with a drop line with a weighted treble hook on it. He handed it to me and said, ‘Don’t stop using it until you come up with my rod and reel.’”

Pete dutifully started to jig with the treble hook rig and, believe it or not, after about 20 minutes he came up with the rod and reel.

No, there was no fish connected to the other end.

Pete said he just wasn’t paying attention when the rod slipped out of his hands. He was sure glad he and Uncle Pup were fishing buddies again.

I have also seen jigging rods used for ice fishing disappear through the hole chopped in the ice when a fish grabbed the baited hook on the end of the line. While a jigging rod used for icefishing is usually used with some type of lure, some fishermen will put a hook on the end of the line and bait it with a grub or sometimes even a small shiner. They then left the rod unattended and that’s when a fish grabbed it and pulled it down the hole.

Yep, it can be embarrassing if you are on the ice with some fishing buddies. Please don’t ask me how I know this.

Another time, my son George and I were fishing the Quinnipiac River down below Red Bridge for carp. We were using forked sticks stuck into the sand to hold the rods when an old fishing buddy stopped by to shoot the breeze. I had my back to my fishing rod when the gent I was talking to excitedly yelled, “Mike, there goes your fishing rod!”

I turned and grabbed the rod just as it hit the water and, after a brief battle, landed a carp around 15 pounds.

You’d think that I would learn after so many mishaps and near mishaps, right?

Remember me telling you about the huge bluefish that hit a line on a rod that I had in a sand spike (a tube stuck into the sand to hold a fishing rod while surf fishing)? I was rigging another line when the rod was ripped out of the spike. I luckily got to it before it was gone forever. (I believe that was a record bluefish, but I simply filleted it without ever having it weighed; the memory of that bluefish still haunts me.)

I almost lost another rod and reel to a carp at Mirror Lake. After that, I went to The Fishin’ Factory over in Milldale and was telling them about my “almost” mishap. Vennie and Pete suggested I purchase a baitrunner reel. This is a reel with a lever that, after you cast, allows you to set the reel on free spool so you do not have to leave the bail open. When a fish takes the bait, the reel allows the line to spool out unimpeded.

I got one and, YES, they really work!

Mirror Lake should not be overlooked for some fishing fun. I have seen some nice catfish and trout being caught there along with some really nice largemouth bass.

Three tough ladies

Last week, while riding around, I swung by the boat launch on Hanover Pond by Habershon Field in South Meriden. There were three ladies fishing off the launch and I watched them for a minute and then took off.

Later that day, rain was coming down in monsoon fashion as I went down to the boat launch again along with my Darlin’ Edna. It was raining so hard, I never expected to see anyone fishing, but there were the three ladies sitting in their chairs as if the sun were shining and they were still fishing.

I said to Edna, “There are three dedicated, tough fishing ladies,” and she agreed.

Then the other day I went there and darned if the three ladies weren’t back fishing again.

Now, you just know that curiosity got the best of me, so I stopped to talk to them and they did admit that they got soaked in the rain, but they had a blast fishing.

They were keeping most of the fish they caught (bluegills and a trout) and throwing the smaller bluegills back into the pond. The very fact that they even caught a trout says something about the quality of the water getting better.

The three ladies — Christina Velez, Jackie Dubrowsky and Jessica Figuerea — have made it a point to get in as much fishing time at Hanover Pond as they can and have fun while they are doing it. Great to see the ladies out in our great outdoors.

Hey gang, gotta run. God Bless America and watch over our troops wherever they may be serving our great country.

Source: http://www.myrecordjournal.com/Sports/Sports-Columns/Mike-Roberts-Woods-N-Water-column-Sept-21.html - https://fishinghacksandtips.com/woods-n-water-losing-can-often-lead-to-a-find/ -