Losing Lures

If you saw my video post from last week, I, in an all too familiar act, sent a relatively new lure hurtling across the lake untethered to my line. This followed me losing a similarly new jerk bait from a haphazard cast directly into a fallen tree. Both lures are now offered to the pantheon of the lake gods. So why do we lose lures?

There are a bunch of different reasons more often than not it’s because I’m rushing. Too excited to get out and fish for the first time in a while has led to me using a sun-damaged monofilament, or worn-out braided line that should’ve been replaced in the downtime that I spent doing most likely something less useful. The results are fouled lines or fish swimming away halfway through a fight sporting new headgear.

That rush also happens when I fail to complete a connection to the lure. Excitedly tying on a plug in the middle of a blitz I completed what was effectively 2 half hitches which held for all of 10 seconds after a monster striper took my lure off the coast of Wellfleet and decided to head north to Nova Scotia. The knot's strength couldn’t have stopped the bluegill much less than a 20-pound frenzied fish. In my defense on that specific trip: It was the morning after my cousin‘s wedding which I had been drinking for three days straight and was coming down with the flu. The lost fish still hurts more than any hangover though.

I also lose a lot of lures and a lot of gear because I’m distracted. I don’t bother looking and aiming my cast. I just hope that muscle memory will do what I need that has delivered more lures than I care to admit into overhanging power lines, tree branches, and bridge structure not to mention that haphazard cast rarely allows my lures to hit the water in a way that I need them to plugs end up wrapped around their lines. Spinners are caught up, And soft plastics hook themselves. Out of everything for me, there is no greater annoyance than knowing my otherwise decent cast is completely wasted on a lower that I have to retrieve ineffectively to then hopefully restore it to some level of functionality before forecasting it again over the same area that these fish have now seen my lure cruising through sideways upside down or any other embarrassing orientation

To try and tie this rant on lost gear up I wanted to make this either more humorous or more profetic. I don’t think either is going to happen. I’ve got no doubt that if I tried leaning into this like it was some high school English paper I could end up talking about the collective subconscious man versus nature or something for that effect however, in short space I lose gear when I’m performing the act of fishing without thinking about fishing. If I were to spend an extra 15 minutes before the season or at the end of the season, my gear wouldn’t fail me at the ratio it does now. If I spent a combined hour or two a year practicing casting fewer lures would end up in trees and I’d be able to effectively barrel cast while fly fishing. Stay focused and double-check your leaders.