By Bob Cox, Mountain Valley News staff
I often wonder if there is any way to add up the value of fishing equipment I have lost or accidentally left behind.
Years ago, I left a good pocketknife stuck in a log near one of my favorite streams. A year later, I retrieved it. Other than that knife, I cannot remember ever getting something back, although there was once when I was the beneficiary of someone else’s misfortune when I found a quality trout net lodged in the branches of a tree, which had fallen into the river. While that happened about six years ago, I would still be willing to give the net back if the owner could properly identify it.
I cannot even begin to guess how many three-dollar spinners I have left in deep holes and beaver dams over the years, and I left a nice spinning rod leaning against a tree in a campground once. I went back just a couple of hours later, but it was gone. I am not bitter about someone taking it, but I would not want to know about it if he happened to catch a real lunker with it.
It really hurts when I lose both a good lure and the fish. That has happened on several occasions. Once, while fishing at Miramonte Reservoir, I hooked a nice rainbow that decided to get all tangled up in some submerged brush several yards from the shore. He finally broke the line. Then, to add insult to injury, he swam within a few feet of me with a big red daredevil hanging from his mouth. It took me the rest of the morning to dry off. Fish swim faster than I do.
Probably the most common lost tackle for me is a dry fly. I have left them in overhanging branches, in beaver dams and in fish mouths, but most often they are in a tree somewhere behind me. And I never lose a bad fly. I guess that makes sense. Who has a bad fly tied on long enough to lose it?
What really upsets me is losing two flies in the same tree. I recently received permission to walk up a small stretch of river on private property. I was successful in hooking up on two nice browns while using a royal coachman fly. It turns out that it was the only small coachman I had in my fly book at the time. After catching the second fish, I made a beautiful backcast and caught a 60 foot cottonwood. As usual, the fly was just high enough in the tree to resist all attempts at retrieval. That is when I realized that I did not have another similar fly, so I selected an Adams of the same size. Almost immediately, I caught a fish. Then on the next cast, the Adams joined the coachman and I headed home.
Since I no longer tie my own flies, I will now spend a few of my hard-earned dollars to replace some more tackle. All you other fisherman owe me. Just think of the contributions I have made over the years through the Dingell-Johnson tax.
But, I would not have it any other way. At least I am not out losing golf balls.
