Misadventures of late.....

[siestafred 0]

#1. So the other day I was in the bathroom for a whiz and did the usual....unzipped the trousers and reached in to pull the fly flap on my Jockey briefs back and get ole Peter out to do the business. You know how with briefs the fly flap is always on the right side. (Makes me wonder why they never made a model for lefties though.) Anyway......gasp.....no fly flap ! I can only feel solid Jockey. My mind begins to race.....what the "f---" ? Am I dreaming here ? Am I somehow wearing someone else's undies by mistake ? Like my wife's, for example? Was I just at an all night mixed debauchery and forgot ? I've been wearing this same style of Jockeys for over 65 years for God's sake. That's almost 24,000 days and nothing like this has ever happened to me before. What are the odds?

Thank goodness I was in my own house so I proceeded to drop the trou and pull down the J's so I could relieve a now urgent need. Lo and behold.....you may have guessed by now....same old familiar Jockeys but.....inside out !

 

As if that was not humbling enough......

 

#2. Yesterday I was out in the kayak (Tarpon 120 sit-on-top with a foot rudder system) fishing the ICW here in Sarasota. The day started out pretty well with a couple of nice trout right away. Then I decided to move about 1/4 mile away to look for some Reds as the tide was beginning to come in nicely. Right away my rudder pedals locked up. The wind was blowing pretty good and the tide was moving, so I rather awkwardly paddled in to water along the Mangroves about 2 feet deep so I could get out and have a look at what the problem might be. I have a rod holder but sometimes I just lay the rod down so I can get at it quickly if need be. The rod tip brushed a bit on the mangroves but a quick check told me it was ok and I went on examining the cable at the stern to locate the problem. Sure enough one cable had snapped and the rudder was caput. Dam, now I have to steer the rest of this very windy day with the paddle. Ok. jump in and head out. About 15 minutes later I drop anchor and jump out ready to fish. Reach for the rod and.......no rod....gone !

Now, this is an Orvis Helios 9'8wt with a Nautilus FWX reel and a brand new SA textured sink tip. Holy crap! My heart stopped.

Ok, get a grip. Paddle back the 1/4 mile and look along the bottom. It's a silver aluminum reel so it should be easy to spot. The water is 1-3 feet deep and mostly clear. If it hasn't fallen out along the way it surely must be sitting on the bottom back at the mangroves. But it wasn't.......at least I never saw it. Back at the spot where I had stopped to check the rudder I got out and waded but still nothing. At this point all those weird thoughts like "should I admit this to my wife or just go and replace it?" start flashing through your mind. So, why I don't know, but I decide to take a last look maybe 20 yards along the mangroves further away from where I had stopped......and there it was.......not on the bottom but FLOATING on the tide. Go figure....the darn thing floats like a cork !

 

I'm sure this has happened to some of you in some variation, but maybe I need some help........honestly ! Maybe a quick 6-pack....hmmm.

 

Cheers......Fred

[Scud 0]

That's one crazy day

[utyer 0]

I took a fall in the Middle Provo last year, and came up without my rod. It was swept off by the current while I regained my footing. I have dropped many a rod to catch myself before, and this was the first time one had been swept away. I spend the rest of the afternoon searching the banks and then dredging the deep swift boulder strewn pockets below where I lost the rod. Never did find it.

 

The rod wasn't all that expensive, but it was a good one.

[mikechell 0]

Sitting, cross legged on the front of my 10 foot john boat. This is about 15 years ago, but I still fish this way today. Back then, I often had my brother-n-law with me. No matter how many times I'd warn him, he'd still lean over the side to wash his hands or what ever. This time, I was facing away and had no warning. Off the bow I went.

When I finally hauled myself out, I found that I'd kicked my fly rod overboard. At that time in my life, it was the only one I had, and I loved it.

I tried dredging, but we were over one of the deepest parts of a fast running river ... never found that one, either, Utyer.

[siestafred 0]

Losing a good or favorite rod & reel sucks for sure.......but it makes you feel like such a clutz. You can always replace the hardware but the humiliation lasts a long time. You can't buy your way out of it.

Years ago I had a Winston Boron II 8' 4 piece 4 wt rod I loved for mountain stream trout fishing. One day I was hiking from one spot to another with the rod pointed out behind me. I had just broken off a nice Brown and decided to wait until I got to the next pool to rig it up again. Halfway there I happened to notice that the top section had pulled out and was nowhere to be found. Try looking for a 2 foot section of fly rod in the deep woods with all kinds of branches lying around...no chance ! Cost to replace that one section was almost as much as a new rod. I never did.

I still look at it in my garage every once and awhile and feel the angst.....but now I never go anywhere with a rod that isn't rigged unless it's in a case.

[Saltybum 0]

_{Gotta love those light FWX reels. So light they float. At least on a fly rod. Dropped mine a couple times and expected to get sand in it the first time but was quite pleased to see it floating.}

[Piker20 0]

Nothing worse than watching in slow mo as that new spare spool with the new line in rolls tantalizingly down the bank and plop into the water that's 10ft deep. Or walking 2miles to a spot and then snapping the rod tip off before a first cast. Damn. Still rarely take 2rods so guess I never learn.

Or driving 2hours to a river and realising you never packed a reel doh!

Or spending the GDP of a small country on bait to set up a spot only to return next day and find some guy sitting there saying "never been this good here before".

[agn54 0]

I feel for ya Fred. I once had the tonneau cover rip loose on my truck and flap in the wind on the highway. When I got to where I was going I saw that both rods in the back had all the eyes stripped off. Luckily this was a repairable break. I have also broken the tip on a rod slamming it in the door, but again still fixable. The worse was having a rod snap in two when a 3 lb jack hit trolling. It obviously had a crack in the rod, and I somehow still managed to get the fish in. I have been with friends who had rods pulled over but we managed to recover them (and the fish) by pure luck.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

dang Fred you need the 6 pack before the fishing trip

[EricF 0]

A few years ago, my bud and I went up to his camp in the williwags of Maine. The gods were smiling on me, but definitely not on him. We drove for hours and got there to learn he left his keys to the camp at home. We broke in (something he seemed strangely experienced with) and went fishing the next day. He caught a snag ... and I watched him - faster than I could comment (there was sort of a dumb silence on my part) he did everything that we all know not to do and broke his rod. Then, on the way back, we ran out of gas in the lake. There were other things that went wrong for him that trip ... I just don't remember them. I've never seen anything like it --- it really was like he was cursed...

[Capt Mel Simpson 0]

Fred,

 

I don't know you but your funny as hell, thanks for the laugh.

 

Mel

[Horseshoes 0]

Since I have no peter I am not sure what the hell this has to do with flyfishing in the salt with your personal fly?????????????????????????????

[Piker20 0]

don't have a peter! now that sounds that a proper tail of misadventure. Tell more.

[Saltybum 0]

Piker, you are kidding right! If someone doe not have a peter that usually means the female variety. Eh!

[Piker20 0]

Yep just jostling. I thought horseshoes would invent a bobbit story to give us all a giggle.