One New Trick to Recover Gear

Contributed by JR Pate

To celebrate turning 39, some buddies and I recently loaded up the kayaks and went fishing. We paddled a bit and as soon as we hit the flats covered in pads we all went our separate ways, each with their own game plan. I immediately went to duplicate what had worked a few weeks ago for me on this area – frog fishing beside tall reeds that were close to the channel.

After hitting the reeds that produced for me before with no success I began to move to the next set of reeds when it happened. I did something I’ve not done since I started kayak fishing but had read about on so many posts & forums. I knocked a rod into the water and as I’m scrambling to grab it – I’m also fighting to move quickly with the pads around me. I watched the frog sink out of view along with the rest of the rod and without hesitation I grab the ParkNPole & shove into the bottom of lake with the tip barely above the water.

Rewind back several years ago when I began fishing with someone who would become a mentor, good friend and kayak fishing partner. On one of our many trips where he showed me some areas I’ve never explored I made the mistake of setting my camera down beside me on the perch seat of the kayak. I knew better but had gotten comfortable and was just setting it down for a second while I grabbed something out of the BlackPak behind me. That’s when I heard the splash as it hit the water. I immediately yelled out to Brad what I had done as he fished the across the creek from me.

His immediate response was “stick your stakeout pole in the water.” As he paddled back to help me recover my gear, he explained the why and that as the kayak drifts you’re going to lose the exact spot where it dropped. We now had a search area and reference point to search. I watched him as he worked the water around the ParkNPole with his dip net while I was frustrated because the memory card held pictures I hadn’t backed up from a fishing trip to WY. The good thing about the Panfish camera holder is the small amount of padding around it will make the base float upwards while the camera rests on the bottom and within a few minutes he comes up with the camera in the dip net.

That lesson on the camera is why immediately as the rod sunk down I grabbed the ParkNPole and shoved it down in the water to mark the spot. As I tried with a jig circling around the pole to hook the rod – I realized it was time to for some help. The first question Brad asked as I placed the call – “Did I mark the spot with the stakeout pole”. Once he was there to help I watched as he used the paddle to feel out the difference in the bottom. I had worried doing that would cause the rod to sink in the mud. I watched him and copied the using the paddle to feel around the bottom. I then watched as he used a crankbait and instead of making long passes he used the rod tip/crankbait more like a hook, pulling the line against the rod similar to the way one uses a an extension pole to cut tree limbs. I watched once again frustrated at what a crappy way to start a birthday; and then Brad pulled the rod out of the water explaining what he had done.

My wife jokes that all my good friends are older than me and she would be right. One of my best friends is an older guy I met in a deer camp. He took the time to help me understand the details that made him successful in hunting whether it’s for deer or ducks but just couldn’t teach me shoot straight. Brad has done the same with kayak fishing and especially tournament kayak fishing but can’t help me hook them all. What I’ve learned from both is you have to be open to having them help and listen as they share their experience. You have to be willing to try it their way and respectful of their experience, time & work especially when sharing maybe there favorite fishing hole, deer spot or more important the techniques they use. You have to give back by putting in your own time and sharing with them things you learn. Lastly you are going to have times that you want to pave your own path. Be willing to accept the “told you so” if it doesn’t work and them take little of the credit when it does. You’ll just smile either way and remember when your day comes to mentor someone you’ll probably do the same.