I got a lanyard anchored to the ground on my rods if they're going to be a few feet away from me. Had a buddy who set is rod up on some rocks. He said no catfish will be able to take it, it's secured. Less then 5 minutes later, his rod bends and jumps up several feet into the air and goes forward for about4-5 yards into the drink. LOL's. Just happened as I was catfish clonking the shoreline.

By our state law, we have to be within 100 feet of our rods or something like that.

why don't you use the free spool on your open face real , so when a fish takes the reel will back reel. you can use a clip or ruber band to pinch the line and  just leave the bail open  too.

I do that sometimes, but I don't like to gut-hook my fish.  I like to react immediately when I fish strikes. 

i've used the rubber band and open spoil for years. don't gut hook to many fish, at least not any more than i do when using a bobber or tight lining.

i have lost a couple of rods over the years. the 2 that i remember the most was when i was ice fishing. the 1st time i had a flag on a tip-up and i put the jigging rod under my bucket with the spud laying on top of that. you guess it the rod was gone when i came back from the tip-up. the second time i was unhooking a big crappy from one jigging pole and all of a sudden my second rod took off and shot right down the hole. i was less than 4 ft. from it and couldn't move fast enough to grab or step on it.
my biggest laker i ever caught almost took my rod from me and it was in my hand,. if the reel handle hadn't gotten hung up on the ice, i don't think i would have gotten it.

I also lanyard my ice fishing poles if I have to leave them unattended now. It only takes a few seconds for a big fish to pull it into that hole. I've been lucky several times that my poles have jumped up out of the rod holders or the bucket and didn't quite dive into the ice hole. My buddies's haven't been as lucky, theirs have shot straight into that ice hole.

I did have something similar happen although not quite the same.
I was in my yak and I noticed some mono hanging in a tree and followed it up to what looked like a jitter bug lure. I forgot that I had my grandson's Shakespeare Spiderman fishing rod with a spinner hanging off the back of the kayak. When I slowed down for the "shinny object" in the tree the spinner apparently snagged and before I knew it, the little fishing rod was gone. Now I owe him a rod, but it will be a little better than the Shakespeare Spiderman Spincast combo. And maybe some day I will recover that old one as a memento. Live and learn. If I had it in the rod holder.....

Just be glad yours didn't happen on TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybj4VwoKR5Q

Yep, alot of crazy things happen to Bill!

When I'm ice fishing I use a rod holder that clips onto my fishing box, will also clip onto a bucket. That way when I have to run after a tip-up and get a fish on my rod he will have to take my box down the hole and it won't fit.

Just Mike
Lifer since 2006

This thread might be dead but if anybody is still checking it I got a fun fish story. I was cat fishing in the Delaware from a pier and i did what i never do any more, i left my rod to go do something. Of course when i got back it was gone! It was summer so I put on a mask and fins and dove in to look for it. Miracle of miracles i found it wedged into a submerged tree limb in about four feet of water. I picked it up , stared reeling in and darn if a 16 inch channel cat wasn't still on the line. I still get the biggest kick out of remembering that. Needless to say I don't leave my rods unattended without opening the bail and securing them good any more. Tight Lines.

Some years back I did that. I was carp fishing and had my rods on the bank. Well I got bored and was not paying attention to them. All of the sudden my drag screamed and one of my rods jumped up and headed for the water. I ran up and stomped on it(BONEHEAD MOVE).I had to reel in a 5lb+ carp by wrapping the line around what was left of the rod and reel.The reel was shattered and I broke the rod. Lesson learned.

When we were kids for enjoyment we used to go down to the local river that was so polluted that it wouldn't even freeze in the winter. We used to fish near a grain dock for carp and used some of the crudest tackle we could find. Used to use old sparkplugs for sinkers etc. I don't know how many reels we ruined trying to hog in huge carp. We lost a ton of rods back then you would turn your head a second and it would be flying into the river. The most memorable was a young fellow I knew took his dads good steelhead rod down there one day. needless to say he hooked into a big carp and the next thing you know the rod was flying into the river he dove for it and ended up in the river himself. We thought he was a goner the undertow in this river is quite strong and pulled him under the water he struggled and came back to the top. Before long he was quite a way downstream. There were some other fishermen down there fishing for crappies. They grabbed him by the collar and pulled him out of the river probably saving his life. It's funny looking back now but then it was a very scary experience and when he got home I'm sure he didn't sit down for a long time when his dad got done with him lol.

In most states it is illegal to leave a fishing rod, fishing line, tip-up or other angling device unattended.

i saw someone get fined for that

Leaving lines unattended is an instant ticket here in Mi. I've even seen the C.O. give out tickets to guys using tip-ups while sitting in their shanties. They had no windows so they couldn't see when the flags would go up.

Leaving lines unattended is an instant ticket here in Mi. I've even seen the C.O. give out tickets to guys using tip-ups while sitting in their shanties. They had no windows so they couldn't see when the flags would go up.

Leaving lines unattended is an instant ticket here in Mi. I've even seen the C.O. give out tickets to guys using tip-ups while sitting in their shanties. They had no windows so they couldn't see when the flags would go up.