Rod overboard

[Dacotah Eye]

This happened to my brother years ago when we were fishing the face of Big Bend Dam. He thought he had a hit and set the hook. He said "My rod broke!" and was holding the handle which was broken at the real seat. I figured the mono would be bowed up for a while so I turned the boat around, attached a spoon to my line threw it across where we had been trolling. I got lucky and hooked his line on the first cast. I believe his rod had what was called a "composition reel seat at that time.

get a high powered magnet 10 dollars

[KPKyllo]

Originally Posted by foxy

get a high powered magnet 10 dollars

Good idea but I don't think there's much ferromagnetic metal on most of today's rods and reels.

[ColoGregS]

I felt your pain almost. lol
2 weeks ago I set my rod down to help a guy net a fish, looked up just in time to see my rod slide across the entire deck, thankfully the reel hung up on the rod holder long enough for my dive to get there. Had us both laughing after the fact.

Good luck

[David Anderson]

A number of years ago I lost my St. Croix Legend with a Shimano Chronarch in the Mississippi River near Elk River, low visibility. The water was high and fast but we had nothing to try and snag it with so I mentally marked the spot and left. Flew to Denver the next day and on the way back a few days later I stopped at the Bass Pro and bought a large package of the biggest dang treble hooks they had, maybe 8/0 or larger. Got home and went to the hardware store and bought a 4 foot 1/2 inch threaded rod, some eyebolts, nuts, and light chain (I call swing set chain). Cut the chain in 1 foot and 2 foot sections, put 6 eyebolts evenly spaced and staggered the lengths, with a treble hook on the end of each chain. Held the eyebolt with nuts and as well the chain went on the threaded portion of the eyebolt. Finally I put about 6 feet of chain from each end of the rod and made a drag, connected it to a heavy rope and went back like 6 days later. Spent 1/2 an hour dragging up branches, weeds, and was about to do my last drag when I pulled it up and a hook had caught a guide. I was thrilled to see that blue rod come up. By then the reel was filled with sand so I left it and sent it back to Shimano, they cleaned it for free, I still have the rod. I suppose it cost me $40 to make the drag that retrieved a $600 setup. Good luck!

[Tr-eye-fecta]

Twice have retrieved rods that were lost out of the boat. Once was while fishing and friend lost one motor trolling jigs. Probably 15 minutes of 3 people casting vibes across the presumed strung out line yielded success. This year had report of friend who lost a pole the day before and was unable to retrieve. Was fishing with that person and went to the area (no GPS mark, but near shore). Again casting heavy blade baits eventually brought it up. Had to "try" to get snagged dragging the bottom instead of snapping it along bottom.

[TBO1]

Best way to retrieve a rod that I've found is a Stringer.
Need a heavy rod and line if there's snags in that area.

Open ALL the snaps on the stringer wide open, Tie to line and either cast or drag that stringer across the bottom where you think it may be.

Worked for me more than once.