returned equipment

Reading Wader's thread, "Donated Rod" got me to thinking about stories about found and returned fishing gear.

A year or two ago a guide on the Skagit snagged a spey rod and reel while swinging for steelhead. Don't remember the exacts on the rod/reel but I do remember it was a spey rod with reel of fair quality. The guide posted up on several local Internet BBs that he had found this rod and some specifics about where and how he had found it.

Some time later a gentleman came forth with a tale of losing a spey rod overboard in the general area of the Skagit where the guide found the rod. After giving a detailed description of the rescued rod/reel it was returned to its rightful owner.

True story that was witnessed by hundreds if not thousands as it played out over the Internet.

Any more?

My Son bless his heart dropped my Russel boat Knife overboard in about 12 feet of water. We were trolling at the time. So I figured it was a gonner. I told my sad tale at the campfire that night. Russel boat knives were given out to Scouts in my troop who attained 1st class ranking.
I had had that knife since I was a kid.

My 12 year old son treated the whole thing as an "Oh well" moment but I was really upset. There was a group of boy Scouts camped near us. Someone told them about it. The next night at the campfire a group of Scouts and their leader came over and introduced themselves. One of them handed me my knife. He had been the one to find it. They had figured about where it would be on the bottom after questioning my son for information. Then a dozen or so of them had made a game out of finding it. They all got their swimming badges for the occasion. I was beyond pleased that I had gotten it back.

Alas about 5 years later my son dropped it overboard in Okanagan lake this time in 420 feet of water, so I suppose it will be there forever. At least this time he knew what it meant to me and for my birthday gave me another one. The good part is the enscribed sheath from Scouts of Canada that came with the first one wasn't lost so I use that one with my new blade.

'Twas a very windy day on the ice of Clark Canyon reservoir. Cold too. I took my lightweight thinsulate glove off to do something to the bait or gear. (I forget what) I dropped the glove and the wind started it toward the far shore, across the ice at about 10 mph, with me in very slow pursuit. I was hoping it would get hung up on one of the little windblown hillocks of snow left on the ice. There was a group of ice fishermen, almost in the path of the departing glove, their pick-up parked on the ice. I whistled and waved at them to get their attention. When they realized what was happening, the glove was flying by them. Too fast to catch. I waved them off, turned around and started back, resigned to finishing the day with my hand in my pocket. My companions waved to me to turn around and go back the way the glove went. I turned around, and one of the guys from the pick-up was coming toward me with my glove in his hand. As he drew near, I asked him how in blazes he ever caught up with my glove. It wasn't until then that I became conscious that he had a black lab with him, which he'd let out of the camper and sent chasing down my glove. Impressed the daylights out of me. That was twenty plus years ago, and I've told the story a dozen times. Thanks again Inky!

Three years ago last fall, I was wade fishing the South Fork of the Snake. I was about 30 feet out from the bank, working my way downstream. At one point, I noticed an unusual green object in the water not far off the bank but pretty much ignored it and kept on fishing. A while later, walking back to my access point, the green object caught my attention again. I waded in and picked it up - a reel case, with an Abel Super 4 in it.

I checked with our local fly shop. They remembered a fellow had come in to "report" that he had lost an Abel reel off a drift boat earlier in the year. The fellow was not local, so no one in the shop could identify him. They had his name and phone number for a while, but lost track of it. They did a pretty thorough search and couldn't come up with it.

I called Abel, thinking they would register purchasers by the serial number. Nope. That kind of surprised me.

After doing what I could to find the owner, I decided to put a fresh fly line on it and use it.

If anyone reading this can identify the reel, send me a PM.

Not that I lose things but, well, I lose things. Often.

Trinity, northern Cali. At some point I realize the net is no longer attached to my back. I am standing in the middle of the river. Lokk downstream, nothing. Oh well. Mention it to the guy in the fly shop, and the next day I get a phone call from a person who found a net. ID it and it is mine. I think a second and say "Does it have a tan San Juan Worm hooked into the netting on teh seam, where it won't come out?" Yep, got the net back.

Same river, two years later. I get a phone call from the same shop, asking if I wanted my canoe paddles back. Oh, and the anchor. And my wading boots. Left em at the takeout, didn't even know I had left them. I was the only one who canoes that reach regularly, so they knew who to call.

I stopped and talked to a lady one day at the rail run. She was sitting in a lawn chair under a tree, watching her husband fish and reading a book. After they left, I noticed she had left her glasses (in a case) on the post near where she had been sitting. I picked up her glasses, then left messages with the local shop, the one in Redding, (where he had mentioned they lived), and on a local BB. No responses. Glasses ended up in the glove box. For almost a year. One day I stopped by the rail run, and under the tree, the same lady was reading a book. I walked up and asked if she wanted her glasses back.

2 days ago!!! I was taking off my gear and had set my reel on the roof of my car while putting my rod in it's sleeve. I was rushing, and forgot it on the roof. So between the reel and line and backing, I'd have been out a good number of dollars. I went back to get it, but it was nowhere in sight. I checked the shoulder of the road, even all over the pavement for broken parts of my reel. Then today I took my 8 wt to do some fishing. And an older man walked up and said "You do a lot of that fly fishing here, don't ya?", So I replied with "Yeah, I try:)". He said look here. Then pulled my reel out of his pocket, and told me he found it in the middle of the road.

I was so thankful. Thanked him so many times. Now I can fish my 2wt some more!

Shane