Losing Gear

[mav]

Messing with some jigs had me thinking about losing fishing gear and seeing other people lose their gear over the years.

When I was a kid, I always had a bad habbit of accidentally kicking our bait knives off the pier. Last I remembered I was on number 7. Since then, I've had this phobia of losing things to the edge of piers.

I haven't done it myself but I've seen people lose their bukets while pumping ghost shrimp. They'd leave their extra buckets in one place. The tide comes in and their buckets start floating away, while they are half a mile down the flats.

Another one was when I was walking, leaving OB pier. This guy has three rods set down. The guy was sitting, kicking back near the cafe. As I approach, one rod hops in the water. The the guys just looking like wtf? The next rod hops in the water. He proceds to get up and notices the third rod is starting to go. He jumps to grab it but it's too late. I was always told to propely loosen my drag if I was going to set my rod down. Now I knew why. The guy drops the loudest F bomb. The guy looks to me and says, "Man, I'm glad you saw it because you can't make this sh*t up." The fish played a cruel trick on the guy that day.

Anyway, back to my jig incident. Years have past but it erks me to this day. We had a good day catching macs and bonito. You know, when you catch a lot of fish, things can get messy. So I'm at home cleaning my bucket in the evening. A few of my jigs got fish juice on them so I rinse them off one by one and put them in a sabiki plastic bag. Four 3/4 crippled herrings, one 1/2 oz crippled herring, one 3/4 oz kastmaster, three 1oz squidco anchovy jigs, three 5/8 krocodile spoons, three small Haddock Jig N Spoons, and two large 1oz Haddock Jig N Spoons. I put them on the fence ledge but forgot to grab them. The next day we're going fishing again. I go to grab my jigs. What jigs? Where the hell are my jigs? Some animal, probably a cat, had run off with my tasty smelling jigs during the night. I have plenty of jigs now but I'm always reminded about the loss. I know I'd probably still have most of those jigs today and that's what burns me.

 

[Reel Newbie]

That moment when you break off a $7.00 crab snare on a cast where you forgot to open the bail as a kid ... 3 times within a month...

 

[mav]

That moment when you break off a $7.00 crab snare on a cast where you forgot to open the bail as a kid ... 3 times within a month...

Lol Oh man! If you are underhand casting from a pier, I don’t know what’s worse. Snapping it off or ducking for cover as it rotates back at you.

 

[Reel Newbie]

Be thankful you weren’t the guy whose crabbing rod got pulled off Pacifica pier a few years ago by a whale that got up close. Eventually a couple guys with sabikis snagged the rod back, but it was still completely waterlogged.

Or what about straight up forgetting all your tackle and fish at the pier parking after a nice long summer’s day of fishing? Thank god I didn’t get traumatized by that one. I’m still thankful to this day that no one took my bucket when me and grandpa had to make the trip back to Pacifica.

Another story from way back, when I was new to the crabbing thing, some guy on the S.F. Municipal Pier had a brand new crab net from gus’s tackle and snagged it on a piece of protruding rebar on the pier. He eventually cut his line and left it there. Me, being the creative and cheap 12-year old, got my pliers and fashioned a “hook” out of the wire from one of my 5 dollar Walmart nets I was using and eventually got it loose with the help of a bucket hitting it into the pier. Patched the netting up with some small zip ties and bought some new rope, my “new” crab net was done. Still use it to this day. Must have really bummed that guy out that he couldn’t catch a single crab from that 30 dollar investment.

 

[Robf]

A few years ago, my son and I decided to do a little rock fishing. So we drive an hour, and I decide to stop at a tiny little cove in a residential neighborhood and throw a few casts before going on to our final destination. Rig up on the 12' ugly stick, first cast out into the kelp, and the end half or my rod goes flying into the surf. No problem, I thought, just reel in and the terminal tackle will bring back the rod tip. The kelp had other ideas. I'll skip to the end. Ended up snapping off my terminal tackle in the kelp and donated it and the rod tip to the sea. There was some cursing. Day over.

 

[DSRTEGL]

Try driving to Paradise Pier from Rohnert Park only to find that you FORGOT TO PACK YOUR RODS........THAT is why I got the telescoping trunk rods lately

 

[mav]

Crab nets.. crab nets... I think my parents left a couple.. Not at the same time but I do remember it happening.

I've had friends an family members forget their slippers after getting sand crabs.

I've been in that "2 piece" situation. Lucky I had another rod with a heavier setup to cast and tangle to the lost top half of the rod.

The first thing going in the car is my tackle bag. Next my rods go in.. A couple of times I almost left my bucket of fish. One time I left then remembered and went around the block to come back and get my bucket.

 

[Reel Newbie]

I had tried out a new braid to leader knot and had it come undone casting a kastmaster in the bay. Well that was a good way to use it... and it was the only one I had in my box.

The good feeling of snagging someone’s lost crab snare in the ocean. And karma immediately taking one from you.

 

[Mahigeer]

Messing with some jigs had me thinking about losing fishing gear and seeing other people lose their gear over the years.

When I was a kid, I always had a bad habbit of accidentally kicking our bait knives off the pier. Last I remembered I was on number 7. Since then, I've had this phobia of losing things to the edge of piers.

I haven't done it myself but I've seen people lose their bukets while pumping ghost shrimp. They'd leave their extra buckets in one place. The tide comes in and their buckets start floating away, while they are half a mile down the flats.

Another one was when I was walking, leaving OB pier. This guy has three rods set down. The guy was sitting, kicking back near the cafe. As I approach, one rod hops in the water. The the guys just looking like wtf? The next rod hops in the water. He proceds to get up and notices the third rod is starting to go. He jumps to grab it but it's too late. I was always told to propely loosen my drag if I was going to set my rod down. Now I knew why. The guy drops the loudest F bomb. The guy looks to me and says, "Man, I'm glad you saw it because you can't make this sh*t up." The fish played a cruel trick on the guy that day.

Anyway, back to my jig incident. Years have past but it erks me to this day. We had a good day catching macs and bonito. You know, when you catch a lot of fish, things can get messy. So I'm at home cleaning my bucket in the evening. A few of my jigs got fish juice on them so I rinse them off one by one and put them in a sabiki plastic bag. Four 3/4 crippled herrings, one 1/2 oz crippled herring, one 3/4 oz kastmaster, three 1oz squidco anchovy jigs, three 5/8 krocodile spoons, three small Haddock Jig N Spoons, and two large 1oz Haddock Jig N Spoons. I put them on the fence ledge but forgot to grab them. The next day we're going fishing again. I go to grab my jigs. What jigs? Where the hell are my jigs? Some animal, probably a cat, had run off with my tasty smelling jigs during the night. I have plenty of jigs now but I'm always reminded about the loss. I know I'd probably still have most of those jigs today and that's what burns me.

 

[Mahigeer]

I think more of a surfer than three big fish. I have seen it done at Malibu pier.

 

[mav]

Ohhh yea. Seen a lot of people lose big corbina due to surfers. One of the reasons you can’t fish the surf at Imperial Beach during the day is because the surfers were getting tangled in the lines of people fishing for shortfin corvina.

It’s dumb. They were the ones that were breaking the rules about staying 100 feet away from the pier and the fishermen get punished.