Equipment lost on the river

[michaeledward]

I was at a remote site last week (a fly in Quebec camp). While fishing, my old vest started deteriorating (it was cheap to begin with). Add to that, my habit of not securing the flaps and zippers and;

I lost a fly box full of streamers.
I lost a split shot selector box.
I lost six spools of tippet material from 1x to 6x.

Arrgghh!!

What is the worst that you have unintentially left behind on a river, never to be found again?

What is the best solution you have for preventing a repeat occurance?

I have an Orvis vest from a TU raffle, that will replace my old one, but do you have any other suggestions, before something more valuable goes missing?

Mike

[petegas]

The worst thing i ever lost was the tip to my winston 8'9" 5 wt in PA and a box of my favorite spring creek flies i tied i dropped on DePuy's spring creek in MT. i easilyl replaced the tip, but it took a lot of tying to replace my flies.

i guess the only thing that i would suggest is to take one's time when working with gear out on the river and make sure everything is set before moving/casting, etc, i too am a chronic pocket un-zipper-er :?

[fessiewig]

Ya know, I can't remember ever loosing a fly box. I don't think I do anything special, but I do secure all flaps by zipper or velco (whichever is available) everytime. I take the box out, select a fly, close the box, and secure it back in the pocket and zip it.


I know . . . . . . I'm screwed now!

[Squaretail]

Fessie-

You're officially on notice... Fate has been tempted!!!

[Boneylegs]

I haven't yet had the misfortune of losing things on the river.....yet! I have come close, though. Missing the pocket and have the flybox start floating downstream (if they only had film of my mad scramble to stop it before it got into faster current :shock: ) is the worst I've had it so far. Not bad for fishing for 25 years. But I don't know how many times I've changed flies, replaced the box and forgot to zip back up, then realize what I hadn't done a half hour later and panick as I check to see how many boxes fell out in the last 1/4 mile of rock hopping!

The best tip on keeping fly boxes on your person that I've heard is to tie a short cord or string to the box and your vest. Makes sense, but I guess I'm either lazy or senseless because I still haven't gotten around to doing it yet! Guess I like to tempt fate :oops:

[FishcaneNH]

I had a bad one back in June up in the Connecticut below First lake: I'd been hauling too many fly boxes around and didn't have enough room in the vest pockets, so I consolidated 2 boxes of dries. I put the empty in the back (open) pocket of my vest and the full one into its usual zippered pocket. Halfway through the day I'd made a fly swap and begun fishing when I saw a fly box go bobbing by. After a moment of elation at my good luck, I realized it was MINE- yes, the full one. The box was nothing special- just a cheap Plano- but there were probably 75-100 nice dries in it... I've hoped some kid found it floating on Francis ever since. The river was at 450 at the time, so a chase was out of the question...

At least we caught a few fish.

I feel your pain. No, really~

Dan

[BugChucka]

My father found a rig if anyone lost one in the White Mountains... if anyone knows who the owner is let me know. He said a biker probably dropped it or something. Pleuger reel... I haven't seen it yet to give the details.

I'll keep it from getting rusty in the meantime... :D

[dcs2]

Last year I was fishing on the Lamprey about 2 miles from my home. When I came out of the river, I leaned my Orvis rod and reel and wading stick against the right side of the truck, tossed my boots and wader in back, and drove off. That evening I decided to fish again and noticed that I was missing my rod and reel. I drove down to look and was not surprised that nothing was there--this is a popular fishing spot. So I posted a sign and left the number of my answering machine. A few days later a guy from Newmarket called me. I described the missing rod and reel, and he returned them. It turns out that he had come out of the river just as I was driving off. He immediately posted a note saying that he had FOUND a rod and reel and left his phone number. He had several calls almost immediately from people who had "lost" the stuff, but they couldn't describe the items. So he went back a couple of days later and saw my sign. So there's good people out there and some who aren't so honest.