first for me

[Hillsfisher]

Fishing today, tip-up flag goes up...run over and it is spinning!  Grab it and only feel a little weight, not really fighting...   Keep pulling in line, end of my line I find some other line, keep pulling, up comes a bobber, then an ice rod!  No fish...  Not a fancy rod but it works!  What the hell?!  Not sure if the pike grabbed my bait then got tangled, or if it was actually attached to the rod when I hooked it.  Either way, strange! 

[Gamalot]

I would think the rod hit the deep six when a fish yanked it down the hole. You don't mention if there was still a hook below the bobber. I would bet if there was no hook the drag on the rod was probably tight and the fish that popped your flag was dragging the rod around until you hooked it at which time the hook line broke leaving you the rod.
I once caught a big LM Bass that never hit my lure. I ran my Daredevil spoon right in front of him but he never moved and a foot or so later the fight was on. Turned out he had a rats nest of line that he broke off another rod and my lure grabbed it.

[Bucket Rump]

That's an odd one for sure!  Another possible scenario would be you had a run and drop with your tip up line getting pulled across the line of that submerged ice rod and you raked it back in.  Cool story!

Reminds of the time I was jigging for lake trout in 110 FOW and felt something on the lift.  I set the hook and sure enough had something but it felt a little... different.  Reeling up I could feel plenty of  resistance with this thing moving somewhat erratic and putting a pretty decent bend in the rod.  After about a minute long "fight" up out of the hole comes an old laker trolling setup with a 10" flasher and a dipsey diver combo.

[Gamalot]

I hope someone gets lucky on my local reservoir. 2 years back I had just set up a downrigger and bought a brand new pair of Daiwa Sealine 27SH reels and 8 foot rods. I took an elderly neighbor out fishing, 90 years old and loves to fish and in pretty good shape. He let out about 100 feet behind the boat and when he went to put the rod in the holder he lost his balance and the rod got parked on the bottom in 90 FOW. Never even caught a fish on the thing and $150 in the drink. I went back a few times attempting to drag the bottom in the general area of where it went in but never could grab the line.

[fish/hunt4ever]

funny story as we were fishing next to a boat that we knew and he lost a pole over board a few weeks later caught that rod and got it back to him.

[Gamalot]

funny story as we were fishing next to a boat that we knew and he lost a pole over board a few weeks later caught that rod and got it back to him.

Pinpointing the exact position where the rod went in is a rather hard thing to do out on the open water. I thought I had the spot pretty close but was unable to fish the rod up after a few attempts over where I thought it should be. I had a few of the old weighted snatch treble hooks from fishing up in Pulaski some years back and after snagging them I had to give up on ever getting my rig back. I could easily be off the position by a couple hundred yards and never thought to hit the MOB button on my finder with GPS.