Fish 1, fisherman 0

[10th MTN Dave]

Anybody else ever have this happen (And willing to fess up about it!)

Fishing with a buddy on Perch Lake this past Saturday.

We each had our 5 tip-ups out and each of us was jigging with a single rod. We don't actually "Jig" constantly but go a while, give it a rest "Dead sticking" then go at it again for a while etc. While dead sticking we place the rod in a designed holder that sits over the rim of a 5 gallon pail. My buddy gets a flag on one of his tip-ups and heads on over to it after placing his rod in the holder. I am sitting on a bucket jigging my rod and keeping an eye (Not a very good one) on his pole as well. He unhooks a pickerel and starts heading back over to me, when out of the corner of my eye I see his pole bend down to the hole opening. While I put my pole down and stand up to step over to his, the pole is now getting really yanked, and the bucket is starting to tip, and a swear the sled that the bucket was sitting in even moved closer to the hole. Then, you guessed it. the rod pops out of the holder and is gone in a flash right down the hole. I am laying on the ice with my arm down the hole, but to no avail. the rod is gone. My buddy kind of laughed it off, but that sucked. Must have been a really nice pike or there is a loose submarine swimming in the depths of perch lake!

We ended our day after catching perch, pickerel, and even a few bull head, while taking home three nice fat pike that will find their way into my pickle jar. Other than the lost pole, a pretty good outing. I would love to read the story on here about the guy who catches a giant pike with my buddy's ice rod still attached!!

[nitzer]

hahahahah...thats funny...never had that happen but have left my jigging rod and came back to it witgh the tip in the hole...lucky i guess

[bigredonice]

yes, it happened to me for the first time earlier this year.   I was jigging big bluegills, and they were actually waiting for the jig to stop moving before they would hit it.

Well I had put my rod down at some point, and when I looked back I saw my bucket move, rushed over, grabbed my rod right before it went in the drink. Nice gill on it.

About 10 minutes later, I set my rod down again and went over and jigged out of my buddies hole with his rod....went back to my shanty, and my rod was GONE!

[LastCast69]

yep, seen my buddy loose a st.croix to a trout. OUCH! when we got to the hole saw the butt of it scooting out of view. was a big trout!

[OneBucketMike]

yes, it happened to me for the first time earlier this year.   I was jigging big bluegills, and they were actually waiting for the jig to stop moving before they would hit it.

Well I had put my rod down at some point, and when I looked back I saw my bucket move, rushed over, grabbed my rod right before it went in the drink. Nice gill on it.

About 10 minutes later, I set my rod down again and went over and jigged out of my buddies hole with his rod....went back to my shanty, and my rod was GONE!

"Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!!" Sorry BigRed, I couldn't resist it. I also have seen rods go down the hole a few times, mainly at Sandy Ponds...  Cya...

[drescue7]

Well I went ice fishing on silver lake on the way there had a accident with a deer , went fishing caught none  stopped on the way back picked up the deer. lol

[ICE WANDERER]

         That happened to a friend of mine except about 20 min after he lost his pole he got a flag on a tip-up, when he pulled in the line the line from the pole was hooked to his tip-up hook. He pulled in his pole then caught a laker.

[MadPerry]

hasn't happened to me ice fishing, but salmon season is another story.  we'll fish the pier of the genny in the fall and set up a second pole with an egg sac floating off the bottom.  the trick is you have to leave the bale open and wrap the line around a glass bottle.  when the salmon starts moving with the egg sac, the bottle will tip and bang against the concrete pier.   much like a flag up on a tip-up, there is a mad dash to the pole.  well, one night a friend of mine has his poles set up next to me and his buddy is tending his poles.  the bottle drops on one of the poles but the fish was gone.  his buddy sets up the pole again, but forgets to open the bale on the reel!  a few minutes later we hear another bottle drop, but immediately after, i see out of the corner of my eye that same pole launch into the water like a rocket.  i could not stop laughing!  that is until the following night.  i've got a $160 rig that i had just bought.  really nice baitfeeder reel.  i think i'm so cool that i don't bother with a bottle because mine has 2 drag systems and i'll for certain here it.  WRONG!  salmon spooled me when i wasn't paying attention.  900 feet of braided line and that damn salmon spooled me.  i now tie off my poles to the pier...  

[ewelcher1986]

Better yet. Had it happen to me and could do nothing but laugh. 10 min later on my heavier setup i get a real nice hit. Reel it in to see a bobber coming up at me. My pole. Full rig. And that dastardly pike i got em all.  Lol. That sucks but it has happened and will again

[harrops26]

Happened to a friend. After that happen i had the idea to put an ice scoop across the hole perpendicular to the rod. The next weekend a 25 inch pike pulled the rod off a bucket and the scoop caught it long enough for me to grab it and land the pike.

[mike304]

Never Ice fishing but lost a rod fishing for bluefish a long time ago. funny story. I was fishing along a rocky shorline and cast my bait out and jammed my PVC rod holder in a crack in the rocks and put my rod in.  There was an old timer fishing nearby and I walked across the boulders to talk to him, about halfway between him and my rod. Admittedly I wasn't paying attention, all the sudden the old timer just mumbles "think ya got a bite". i look over and my rod is bent double in the holder. I scramble over the boulders trying to get to it, just then the rod holder breaks and the rod goes clattering down the rocks toward the water. Now i'm really scrambling, I look down and the rod is in the water, about a foot deep. I jump down and reach for the rod, and just as my hand enters the water, the rod takes off like a freight train, headed for New York Harbor. That was 20 years ago and I still think about it. God, I wish i knew what it was!!!

[yankeeangler]

Happened to me last week on White LillyJigged for 2 hours with out a nippleHad a flag came back and my rod was gone.

[IceNeck9292]

Happened to me up on brant lake two seasons ago. Just bought it at the bait shop that mornng ..

[frigidaire]

Happened to me once on Canesus lake about 20 years ago.  It was early black ice and I was using a yellow/orange 1in bobber.  A pike took the whole thing right out of my rod holder when I went to retrieve someone else's left behind empty beer can.  I walked a spiral away from the hole and spotted the bobber about 20 feet away up against the bottom of the ice.  I spudded a hole and pulled up the bobber, pole and all, minus the hook. Since then I secure the rod to the (homemade) holder with a short bungee cord.  Works like a charm, and I don't have to separate the two to play a fish.

[kingoftheice]

It happened to me on white lake a few years ago. I ended up getting the rod back with the help of my aqua view.