# Dropped things of value overboard, then recovered



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Most everyone has dropped things of value overboard while fishing. So how lucky were you to ever get the item back?

Badge returned to deputy after 30 years

http://www.mercurynews.com/natbreakingnews/ci_6481247?nclick_check=1

07/27/07 SAUGATUCK, Mich.More than 30 years after falling into Lake Michigan, a badge belonging to a former sheriff's deputy is back with its rightful owner thanks to a tourist who found it along the shoreline.

Max Elenbaas, now 61 and retired, was fishing from a boat in the mid-1970s when he bent over and accidentally dropped the badge into the water. 

"You lose something in Lake Michigan a mile and a half, two miles out, it's not going to come back to youthere's no way," Elenbaas said. 

The tourist found it on a beach about two weeks ago and turned it in to the sheriff's office. Deputies went to Elenbaas' home to return it. 

The badge is rusty and the case's clear plastic window for the ID card has turned blue, but "it's in very good shape," Elenbaas said. 

"They drove up, he handed it to me and even when I had it in my hand, I looked at it and says, 'Yeah, I can't believe this,'" he said.


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

So when I'm 64, half blind and deaf, and the lake is full of big head carp, maybe my new copper rig will wash up and find it's way back to me?


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## wally-eye (Oct 27, 2004)

In 1975 I watched my dad drop his upper plate in the middle of Platte Bay....:lol: popped right out of his mouth when it happened....funnnnnnny.:lol:

Probably some carp swimming around with them smiling like crazy....


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## Mister ED (Apr 3, 2006)

Well then ... maybe Splitshot will eventually get that brand new, only cut 1 hole (and not even by him), ICE SAW back.


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## SalmonBum (Feb 28, 2001)

I had a guy on my boat this weekend setting a diver rig on the starboard side, as I was setting a rigger right behind him. All of a sudden I hear a splash and here "there she goes". Wonder what piece of tackle he dropped in the drink and how much $$ I lost, I looked down and read the letters "LG". What a relief..... it was only HIS cell phone, not one of MY divers :lol:.


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## Captnbobb (Oct 20, 2003)

I haven't recovered them yet but last weekend was very expensive...first my Cannon Speed and Temp sensor broke off while dangling from the rigger...cable snapped, sensor and cannon ball headed to the bottom in 150 FOW off Point Betsie in the dark, then the next day I was playing with the kids in Crystal Lake, standing up on a tube and fell off into 12 FOW, came up missing glasses. I figured with clear water and a diving mask and only 12 feet down, I could find them but after 2 hours I gave up. Total tab: over $700.


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## thunderman (Mar 10, 2005)

good thread seems like anything thats dropped be it in the boat, or out on the ice, tens to fall into the water or lands right in the icehole.



couple of the more memorable ones that come to mind........ 

newer diawa diver rod with a newer sc47c reel my greenie friends letting the rig out on the starboard side. why is it allways that side bad things happen to???? he has the rod in the holder and is trying to adjust the angle of the holder. now he's been schooled on how not to adjust the rod holder with a rod in it. so i hear him say "****" and hear the "cursplash" time i turned around rods gone. ooh well, scratch one rig. i then said "you got the boat gas for the next several days to cover that oops"!

several minutes later the starboard rigger rod pops a nice king. boat the fish and proceed to grind in the ball. low and behold the diver rods lure is hung on the cable. the lines spooled the reel and lots of hand over hand, got the rod back. bonus! but still made him sport for the gas ha ha. got to teach them right!!!!!!


trolling j plugs off the pier heads of oscoda. grinding the bottom to find the big kings. bam!!!! hit a screamer!! grabed the rod and feels like the trophy we we're looking for. after 30 minutes of some off the best hard fighting i've ever done. we see a flash of yellow and crome. i was like whats that????? sure enough the j plugs hook has cought me a brand new eagle claw diver rod with a brand new 409 reel off the bottom, with a hot 20+ king still attached to a dipsy j plug rig. double bonus!!!!


ice fishing for perch off harson's island one blowing snowing wintery day. in our hast to make it out at sunrise we left the lunch and beverages behind.
the fish were bitting good all morning and at noon we were getting very hungry. the three of us drew straws, well pieces of cattail reed. damm my luck!!! 
the pilgramage back to the store was an adventure in drifting snow and cold. i returned with lunch an a bottle of liquid heat for desert. we huddled in the small shanty ate lunch, and i think we only had a swig each from a nice fresh bottle of kentucky's finest. when i heard that familiur sound "ooh ****, cursplash"
:sad: we tried everything we chould do, but was unable to get that bottle back up off the bottom. sure looked pretty sitting 12 feet down on bottom. the fish though so to, as they came in from all sides to inspect what it was. expensive decoy though.


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## Marrble Eyes (Jun 24, 2003)

Several years ago, shortly after I had CTR surgery to my left wrist (lefty here) A bud and I were fishing Eyes on Saginaw River.

It was cold and i really didn't have the feeling and strength back in my hand. 

Anyhow I rigged up a dead stick for the right side of the boat, then proceded to hook up a minnow and verticle jig off the left side. As we were drifting I turned my attention to the dead stick. About that time a Eye hit the vertical rod and out of my hand it came. Damned. A St. Croix Rod and a 150 dollar reel.

So I grab another rod I Had handy, used the trolling motor to try to get back up stream. My bud came up to the bow to help. We farted around for about 10 minutes when the deadstick loaded up. I grabbed the rod and started reeling. I told my bud, wouldn't htat be a hoot if i hooked that other rod. 

About that time the terminal tackle came to the surface and I was hooked to another line. I grabbed the line and could feel a fish on it, I pulled and brought up the Rod and Reel, then reeled in the eye that was still hooked up to the jig and minnow. (Thank god for stinger hooks).

Now everytime It is slow when we are out fishing, he asks if I want to show him how to catch rod and reels again. :lol:


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## dtg (Jun 5, 2003)

The only thing Davy Jones owns of mine is a cheap pair of sunglasses, knocked off by my brother's fishing rod, while I was attempting to net the fish. I've had the same cheap replacement polorized shades now for the last 8 years. Best $15 I spent.:lol:


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## KEN WES. (Dec 13, 2005)

once a few years back while wading a river for steelhead I looked down to take my next step and saw what ended up being a small tackle box full of little cleos, spinners etc.
another time while floating the rogue river on opening day of trout season I looked down in the water and saw I big red box that said hilti on it. we pulled the canoe to shore and waded out and retrieved a very wet and very big hammer drill with a bunch of bits in the box. brought it home, cleaned it off and found the name of a large electrical company on it. I did the right thing by calling them up and told them what I found and they sent someone out to pick it up and basically acused me of stealing it. see if that ever happens again. 
one time while fishing off muskegon way befoe sunrise with a buddy, we had a very run of fish causing a large mess in the boat with stuff being set all over while fitting fish. I grabbed the net to get the last fish in and as I stuck it in the water I saw my gps case fall out of the net and sink fast. I got lucky though, the gps had fallen out of the case and was on the floor of the boat, but we didnt know that until an hour later when it got light out.


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## AJ Peacock (Dec 3, 2003)

I've lost a few things (a wallet with all my credit cards, drivers license and $50 in cash). Its at the bottom of Saguaro Lake near Mesa Az in 100+' of water. I had it in the pocket of my swimming trunks so I could pay the parking fee and forgot to toss it in the glove box once I hopped in the boat.

I was fishing for smallmouth bass with a buddy in a row boat near Epoufette Mi in Lk Michigan on his birthday. He had received a nice folding knife and belt holster for his birthday. Neither of us had a belt, so the knife was just sitting in the bottom of the boat between us. He asked me to hand him the knife and as I pulled the knife from its holster, it stuck and then came free and I flung it about 10' out of the boat onto a lily pad. It sat there for about 10 seconds before it fell to the bottom. We tried for an hour to find it and finally gave up. A while later, I bought him another knife and attached it to the largest plastic bobber (3" diameter) I could find.

Back before I started using inline boards, I was fishing out of Lexington for spring kings. We were running bombers back 100' or so in 30' of water when the line from the big board went slack and hooked the eye on the port side long line rod, pulled it out of the holder and down to the drink it went. I hit the MOB button on the GPS and kept fishing. About 20 minutes later, we went downwind about 50' from the mark and there was the bomber floating 1/2 mile from shore. We pulled the rod and reel back in like nothing ever happened.


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## greelhappy (Feb 20, 2004)

A bud and I were fishing the Detroit river drifting for walleyes. He puts the rod down for whatever reason (a no-no) and in it goes. A good 10 or so hours later we end up in a bait shop on ten and Jefferson. While doing a little browsing I over heard a father and son talking about the rod he snagged out of the Detroit river that morning. Out of curiosity I asked if the rod was so and so color with a so and so reel and they said yes. Fishing a rod and reel out of the water is really no big deal, running into total strangers at a bait shop 10 hours later who fished your outfit out can at least qualify as a little deal. P.S. i DIDN'T ASK FOR IT BACK........THEY DIDN't OFFER.


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## Trout Scout (Apr 27, 2005)

First was about 20 years ago had people on board and guy bent over with expensive pair of sun glasses at that time and over they went. About 5 minutes later back rigger went off it was set at 95 feet with dodger and fly.
You guessed it caught glasses and nice feeder king. Next was not so nice.
Fishing walleyes in spring and had Big Jon otter boards out with 3 rods on each side. Had fish on port side and customer was fighting fish. Was foggy and didn't know person helping that night was night blind. He did U turn on me and all rods on starboard side went out of holders. Got two back because didn't release but lost one outfit and was fishing for Penn at time and they were the new computer reels and matching rods was testing. Two weeks later was fishing in same area and customer had big walleye on and was fighting and took long time and saw two rapalas in fishes mouth. Got fish and hand over hand and got reel and rod back and had to send in but still worked.
Capt Ed Fish didn't bite two lures it just caught on line and went down the line


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## snowman11 (Nov 21, 2006)

I hit my wife in the face with a spoon. She didn't appreciate it, but her glasses appreciated it even less as they chose to fly off her face. They were recovered in three feet of muck.


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## RyGuy525 (Mar 17, 2005)

I had my cell phone clipped to my belt and i went to step on to the boat carrying a big cooler some how my hip hit the rail of the boat and up and in it went. That was a $250 mistake.


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## SalmonBum (Feb 28, 2001)

RyGuy525 said:


> I had my cell phone clipped to my belt and i went to step on to the boat carrying a big cooler some how my hip hit the rail of the boat and up and in it went. That was a $250 mistake.


Some Transient guy at my Marina Thursday was getting off his boat onto the dock when somehow his phone came off his belt and went in the drink. That phone was his New $800 iPhone he just got..... NO insurance


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## RyGuy525 (Mar 17, 2005)

aint that a kick in the boys!


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## msunolimit (Aug 20, 2006)

SalmonBum said:


> Some Transient guy at my Marina Thursday was getting off his boat onto the dock when somehow his phone came off his belt and went in the drink. That phone was his New $800 iPhone he just got..... NO insurance


that's rough...ouch.


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## aquaticsanonymous (Jul 1, 2006)

I got one that tops them all, but I will never speak of it on the forums after this post. I was getting ready to go out walleye fishing out of augres, and the plan was to test out a new to him 20 hp mercury. Well, that being said, I did take his fourteen foot flat bottom out, and tested the motor out of augres. The motor did not run well, and stalled out frequently at low idle. Well I decided to crank it up a bit, (in shallow water, three feet deep) when the front of the boat shot up in the air, and I can recall hearing a loud noise like the engine was free reving. I turned around to see the motor helicoptering across the water still running! I then lost site of it for a while, but did locate it after seeing oil bubbles coming from the bottom. A couple of other nice fisherman helped me retrieve the motor. Several lessons learned there!


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## gamebird_guy (Feb 8, 2007)

two weeks after getting married I was fishing at tippy, my hands were cold and I shook them to get some feeling back and off flew my ring. I told the guy next to me and he offered me his, said he didn't like being married anyways or didn't like his wife or something, oh well I didin't take him up on his offer. Another time ice fishing dropped my truck keys down my spearing hole, water was neck deep cause I stripped down and went after them, come up out of the hole and my heater ran out of gas. Had spare keys locked in the truck (good idea huh) so I got dressed, ran to the truck and broke my window out with my spud. Called insurance the next day and told her the story, in between her laughs she said "How about you woke up this morning and you found your window broke from the ice and cold?":lol:


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## jim84 (Mar 14, 2005)

I was canoeing on the ausable river training for some racing I used to do and I had my car keys on my shorts had them tied on them for some unknow reason they came undone and fell on canoe bottom I went to pick them up and end up with them flying out of my hand and going over the side. I jumped out of the canoe the water was a little over waist deep and I dove down and found them, luck was with me that day.


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## tbone5587 (Mar 5, 2005)

I've been diving freshwater lakes since 1987, and trust me, I've seen alot, and recovered alot of stuff. Most of our lakes look like the surface of the moon down there, so when there is something down there, it tends to show up pretty easily. As far as the marinas go, there is usually bad visibility and a lot of muck and/or weeds. Makes it more interesting.

Ice fishing holes are my favorite. Swimming along, minding my own business, and WHACK!! Headfirst into a shanty...:lol: 

But yeah...definately lots of treasures down there.

I used to have a post in the lost and found area, stating that I'll give a discount to any member who has me dive for anything. Just let me know by PM or email. I'm cheap...and in-expensive...ha ha


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