Just wondering how many rods have been lost while trying to coerce one's gear out of a sticky predicament?

I have stopped trying to use excessive coaxing as a means to save that one setup. I found that this practice leads to rod failure. Do you agree or disagree?

Anymore I'll give it one pop...then it's time to point the tip and bust it off. Seems to have lead to longer lasting rods for me.

FJ...out

I'll totally agree with that... If I've got a little bank to work with I might move up river a bit to change the angle and give it an easy tug or two.. but then it's strait line time.. I can buy a whole lotta rigs for $300..
I always see people reefing on snags with spendy Graphite sticks.. makes me cringe every time..

Sure if your rig is stuck on a rock. But if you cast just a little too far or a lot too far & your gear is up a tree, bush, or branch here's what I do, even if you see it wrap up a bunch of times it still works..........sometimes. I give a little slack & shake it. Sometimes I shake it for a minute or two. Just jiggle the tip. You'd be suprized how many times you can get it loose. Then when it falls out it can be right in the perfect slot to drift. Then I check the leader for nicks & hook for sharpness.

Another bad thing that can happen, if you pull back too hard the force of the stretching can cause the rod to pop out of your hand and dive right for the bottom of the river...happened to a guy on the nooch a few weeks ago while I was watching. Also happened to me once awhile back, never again, I'll just break them off...

My father in law will spend a half a day in front of a gnarly log jam, leaning half-way out of the boat trying to get a $2.50 plug that he found in the river anyway, a very annoying habit...

He has more types of 'gear grabbers' than he does sizes of Quikfish....

KNOFISH, I was refering to the guys who need to yard gear off snags or trees using rod curve as leverage...a leading contributor to instant or latent rod damage.

FJ...out.

i was once in a tree.. i tried to get it out.. the lead flew back and broke my bottom eye!!!!!!

losing gear is just part of fishing if you have a plug that is hung on a rick your best bet to get it back is to break it off, most of the time they float back up and drift gear well that aint even worth worrying about just break it off same with spinners and spoons. Anyone who goes in my boat better get used to the idea of losing gear fishing time is way more important than gear if you can't get it off in 30 -60 seconds you aint gonna get it off, point your rod at the offending obstacle and pull.

I cringe too when I see folks just reefing back and forth on a snag. You're right, you can buy a lot of terminal gear for the price of a rod.

If it's in a tree branch, another way to handle it is to reel gently, so the gear doesn't strart swinging back and forth, until the gear is just underneith the offending branch. At that point, give it a quick pop. Usually, you get everything back. If you just jerk it before you've got it reeled up next to the branch, it will just wrap around and probably never come loose.

For spoons and spinners, if they're caught on rocks and not on wood, a quick pop, followed by slack often works. If not, I'll freespool quite a bit of line into the river, hoping that the belly of the line changes the down-stream angle on the snag. After the current puts pressure on the belly, I'll give a good pull upstream and reel quickly. This works about half the time. It helps if you don't use treble hooks.

In rocky spots using drift gear, it helps to use the lightest lead possible. This is conventional wisdom, but how many times do you see guys in rock gardens with excessive chunks of lead hanging up time after time and re-rigging again and again with the same big piece of lead.

It also helps to not just let the gear free-drift, but to reel in slowly during the drift. Just slowly walk the drift gear in throughout the drift. I think this keeps belly out of the line and reduces hang-ups. It also reduces the time the lead has to slip under the bottom of rocks. If handled correctly, you are still skipping along the bottom, just more lightly. If you encounter what feels like the beginnig of a snag, resist the urge to pop the gear with the rod. Instead, increase the speed of the retrieve on the reel. For some reason, in combination with slowly retrieving the gear throughout the drift, this helps to avoid hang-ups.

If its a hot plug I will take some time trying to get it back. So far the best method i have found for getting a plug back esspecially if i can almost see it is to pull out my net and make a sweep. I can useally snag a treble and get it off. I wont even bother trying to get drift gear unless its something i dont want to many eyes to see and its visible if someone was to row by.

Just use one of those "rated four times stronger than it's equivalent-diameter mono" fused lines like I do and bring the snag up off of the river bottom yourself. Or drop that annoying tree with the same stuff. If need be, take a portable come-along with you and tie the line off to the hook and start bringing that sucker up/down. Heck, you'll get likely up to a couple hundred dollars worth of tackle off of that snag so the time spent is worth it.

Just ask Hey Y`all how well I do with that. I've brought rocks up from the bottom of the bay to get my stuff back. Does require a hook resharpening, though, but getting it back is what is ultimately the most important.

What kind of BROOMSTICK you runnin DJ? I bet it has one hell of a sensitive tip!

Does the rubber plunger section ever give you fits.

FJ...out.

Hey Fishinsin, My eyes are side by side, post a picture so I can see a bottom eye looks like.

And you scoff at my 7' orange Daiwa glass spinning rod.

I broke my bottom eye once...couldn't sit for a month. Also, people were always sneaking up on me...

John Wayne Bobbitt also lost an eye...it was more like flying steel...ssssssing!

FJ...out.

I always turn away when I pull straight back....I sometimes get hit in the brown eye

ive got a system to get snags out. my fav hole in the world is pretty snaggy.

if you can feel weight starting to build up on you like and your sure its not a fish reel up gently to where the line is from the tip of you rod with a little bend in it to where your gear is hung up. now drop the tip 3-4 inches and just lightly and very quickly work the rod tip to where you have a little slack when you drop the rodand none when you pull up. you should only be moving the rod 4-5inches and it should be a VERY FAST movement. for me it works 80% of the time. its kind of hard to explain so just ask if you need more detail
Tyler

I think I know what you mean...??

There was an article last year in STS about what can happen when you try to power your drift setup out of a tree. The guy ended up with some weird swelling in his hand after the wad shot straight back at him when it came loose. It wasn't until they X-rayed it that they figured out the swivel had penetrated his skin, busted off the main line, and lodged itself against the bone.

Criminy, I just cut it off now, it's not worth it!

TTT, this was a thread about damaging rods by excessive yarding! Not tactics to avoid snagging up.

Although insightful not quite what I was looking for.

FJ...out.

Last weekend for tight line ledge? We'll keep you posted :p

nasty! but i also hate when someoen breaks the line off and you got 100ft dragging in the river that your line hooks up on every cast!

FS, you say you been in trees...why not climb out on that limb and just clean all that broken gear out?

FJ...out.

I was fishing the Tolt one summer and when I cast my spinner into the river it went too far and hooked it self up on the other side. Well I tried every thing that I could to get it loose, but nothing worked. So I did the level your rod thing and pulled. Well what do you know, the line didn't break but the lure came right back at me and it got stuck in my belly. I tried to back it out but it was passed the barbs. I was with two other guys and my pick-up. I laid in the back and I had to get a doctor to remove the hook. What made me mad was that the docter cut my favorite tee shirt. The line was only 4 lb test. And after I broke a rod this winter I now just cut it loose. Jim S.

my bad FJ was just too lazy to read all of the posts.
Tyler

Let Jim S's tale of woe be a lesson to you all. Pack on the pounds around your gut so that plenty of fat is there to protect you from flying hooks. If he would have had six-pack abs it could have done a slight tear to the muscle, which could have been really painful.

Are you calling me fat? My wife likes me just the way I am. Just beause I'm retired doesn't mean I fat. Beside I said several years ago. I was a lot thinner then. Jim S. :p

So no one sees it?? Give me a break zipperlip. Thank you for your help/