Did you hear the one about the striper that caught a fishing rod and lure?

Sometimes fishing success has more to do with unintended consequences than you might have thought. The story I’m sharing is true — that’s what’s scary.

I recently got two new Scotty Downriggers for my boat and I was at San Luis fishing by myself and breaking them in. I had an area that I wanted to fish, so I went out west of the spot in deep water to give me time to put out my lures. I’ve been using ‘riggers for a long time so I’m pretty used to all the possible problems — until now.

I let my lure out about 100 feet then placed the line into the clip behind the ball before lowering the ball until the line depth counter told me it was at about 70 feet. I put my pole in the pole holder that’s part of the Downrigger chassis where I can get to it easily if a fish hits my lure.

I turn away from the Downrigger to set my course for maybe 10 seconds before turning back to the pole. It’s not there!

What happened? My mind is reeling. I notice that the pole holder is pointing straight down; the screw that holds the tube with the pole in it had come loose. The pole was on its way to the bottom. I frantically try to bring up the Downrigger ball, hoping some line might be stuck in the line clip, but the boat speed had pulled it out. The 9-foot pole and reel were goners, as well as my best lure, a blue one. Urgh!

I check the pole holder, berating myself while tightening it down hard. Back to fishing!

I repeat putting out my lure and lowering the ball. Looked good as I turned away, but in seconds — NO POLE! I look over the side of the boat and I see the second pole slowly spinning into the depths. I stop the boat and bring up the ball, hoping the clip has held the line this time. It did! I grab the line and pull in my rod, reel and lure. What happened this time? I had tightened down the screw, but the teeth hadn’t fit into the slots designed to lock the poleholder down. The pole had been heavy enough to overcome my tightening and just fall over dumping it all in the drink. I was lucky I looked!

So I’m trolling about 30-40 minutes later, but not very close to where I lost my pole. I see some activity on my pole that’s set for 70 feet. A fish? I keep moving forward as I’m bringing up my ball, but no fish on my line. I slow to bring up my ball when I happen to look over the side of the boat. The ball was still 30 feet down but I see a good-sized striper about 7 to 8 feet down that’s floating up along the cable. How could this be? Then I saw the real kicker — it had my blue lure in its mouth! It came up and floated on the surface. I was flabbergasted. How did it get my lure in its mouth, then float up to me on cue?

My theory is that when I lost my first pole, the free line let the lure float up off the bottom and this striper hit it. I think my pole went to the bottom but the fish, now on a 150-foot leash (all the line I let out) was swimming around when my Downrigger cable captured the line around the cable. When I brought my ball up fast, it not only brought up the fish from much deeper (causing it to get the “bends” and float up) but also broke the line. That I was looking into the water as it floated up is unexplainable.

The fish at 24 inches was my biggest that day. I let it go back. Did I really catch it? Skill or luck? ... Yep, it was!

Crazy happens. Never give up!