Last Week, My self and three trusty souls decided to go wreck fishing on Saturday morning. Hoping to beat any crowds, we headed out of Owl's creek at O'dark thirty. We snagged into our first wreck around 6am or so and was ready to see if anyone was home. Well, no sooner than we had dropped our baits down than a large school of very nice spade-fish showed-up. We immediately switched our gear over to spade-fish rigs and in short order, I managed to get the first (nice sized) spade into the boat. Well I am standing towards the front of the boat, the fish is now laying on the floor of the boat and the guys are looking down at the spade. I notice that "Joe" (names are changed to protect the innocent) is looking at the fish, meanwhile his arm, and rod, are extended out over the side of the boat, and I see his line give a little tap... This guy has one hand on the rod (a Calcutta reel and high dollar rod with power-pro) and he instinctively gives a sharp one-handed set of the hook without even turning around. As you might have already guessed, the spade-fish was a good-one and immediately takes off like a frikkin kicked-cat and the rod jerks clean out of my Joe's hand into the water! So the rod hits the water and is sinking slowly... Joe and I are the only ones who have any idea this is going on, and I Yell "GET THE ROD"! So now Joe, clothes, glasses, and all goes diving (if you can call it that) in after the rod on all fours, grasping frantically! I watch and as Joe hits the water with a huge SPLASH, the rod looks like it goes into warp drive and takes off like a spear into the deep blue... Joe climbs back in empty handed, also minus a pair of glasses to boot. We all commiserate (tease the heck out of) with him, and luckily he has a back-up so we continue fishing.

About two hours later, we are still on the same wreck, we have caught plenty of Spades and so I decide to go back to a dropper rig and see if I can't get some other meat into the boat. After a few casts I get a bite and set the hook. However it is one of those "wierd" situations where you can feel a fish on the line, but the hook-set was all mushy and not connected at all. I reel up and lo and behold my hook is snagged on moss-green power-pro! I can feel the fish tugging on the line and I proceed to pull in one very worn out spade-fish.... dang thing had been down there, dragging Joe's rod around the ocean floor for two+ hours! We are all looking into the water as I pull up the other end of the line to see if the rod comes up and, sure enough, one shiny Calcutta+rod comes back from the depths!

We ended up the day with some good fish, a lost pair of glasses, and a great story....

Dave

yeah you definently have some good karma, so did you keep the spade or throw it back with a kiss for returning all that money to you??

Glad he got that rod back. Good story. Thanks.

great story indeed

You better go play the lottery. I almost lost a rod like that Sun when a black drum took off when I wasn`t paying attention glad you got the rod back. And feel free to send me the name of the wreck you were on in a pm

Ohh God, I busted a gut laughing at that one!! Anyway, glad he got his rod back!!

Awesome! Wish that happened to me when I lost my Calcutta 200 TE...

Great Story ! Glad that you got the rod back and some good meat in the box.

Great story and glad he got his rod back.......I did that this year while sight casting cobia at Cape Point, NC....was in 7 foot of water and my buddy was running my boat....I was on the bowcap on my platform with 2 Penn 650 spinner outfits, one with a bucktail and the other with a live pinfish....Had the livie in the rod holder and the jig rod in my hand..........Kinda swelly in late afternoon and hadn't seen a fish in 2 hrs......Just like that about a 70lbder pops up right under the bow swiming the opposite way I cast to him and he ignors the bucktail.....Lay the rod across the bowrail and grab the live rig... as I toss it he eats...as drag screams a swell comes portside and not paying attention to the other rod....I hear it hit the rail ...just as it goes overboard.....I hand the fish off to another buddy on the boat...I grab another rod and luckily snag it cause the water was crystal clear..........This one ended up on a good note.....got the rod and the cobe! Thought twice about diving in after it.....it was tempting........but with the other boats...the shoals.....swells.......probally better off....
Matt

Glad you got your gear back. Similar thing happened to my dad when I was 7 years old on my first fishing trip. It was also my dad's first trip and he was sick as a dog. In between runs to the head and chumming over the side he tried to do some fishing. We were on a head boat out of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn,NY and bottom fishing for porgy and black sea bass. As he was dropping his line, he gets a backlash and the sudden stop of the sinker caused him to lose his one handed grip on the brand new rod and Penn Pier reel and over the side it goes. It just so happened that one of the mates was fishing alongside of us (since we were fishing for fish that didn't need a gaff or net the mates would fish whenever they weren't cutting bait) and he was reeling in a pompano. He unhooks the fish and says he is going to try to get the rod back. I'm thinking, no way, how can he possibly do that. It is on the bottom of the ocean and he can't see it, but as a 7 year old I would never question an adult. So he drops his lins in about where my dad's gear went in and to my surprise he snags the line and brings up the rod and reel. Dad was so sick that he couldn't care less that the gear went overboard or that he got it back. I still have that reel. It is 57 years old and still works like new.