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Consolation prizes
#1
I did a little night fishing and somebody left with out there fins. I guess I'm lucky that way free hunting and fishing stuff always comes my way. I've found almost everything from fins (the latest) to 1,000 pair of binos and rangefinders to good spinning rods and fly fishing vests filled with goodes. I've always tried to find there homes but if nothing bites oh well.

Anybody else have this kind of luck and let hear about it.
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#2
[cool]It would seem that you are a lot luckier than those forgetful souls who leave things behind. The Sad part of it is that you hate to see anyone lose gear that probably meant a lot to the family budget to buy it. But, in a lot of cases...where you are a long ways from any big town...the people probably don'e even discover the items are missing until the next time they need them. Then, they get the mental picture of where they saw them last...right where you found them. I know, it has happened to me, both ways. I have lost stuff and found stuff.

I usually have a mental checklist I go through before leaving an area. I double check all around my vehicle and near the water where I came out in my tube...especially if it was after dark. Many is the time I have found something with my flashlight that I had dropped and would have sorely missed if I had left it behind. I think that's how a bunch of stuff gets left behind...just not doing a good job of cleaning up the area before they go.

I have always been a money finder. I walk a lot and I could't begin to total up the amount of coins and bills I have found walking through neighborhoods and shopping center parking lots early in the morning. I have found quite a bit of money along streamsides and lakes too. Excited anglers are in and out of their pockets while fishing and don't pay attention to dropped change, bills or even wallets. I once found and returned both a wallet and a set of car keys to a guy who was frantically searching along the bank...and couldn't remember where he had taken them out of his pocket because they were uncomfortable. Boy was he relieved...and me too.
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#3
[cool]Hey hedgesd,

Several years ago I was fishing my river favorite spot [no body around for miles] when I hooked into what I thought was a whale. Would you believe someone dumped aa old couch into the river. Wanted to return the dam thing to it's rightful owner but where do you start to find the sucker. It is probably still there loaded with all sorts of hooks and goodies.[Sad]
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#4
[cool]That reminds me of when I lived in Sacramento and fished the American River for steelhead and salmon. A stretch that I fished often, all of a sudden developed a nasty snag, right in the middle of the run. After losing several rigs in a row, I gave up and went elsewhere. A couple of days later, I heard that the fish and game department had apprehended a couple of divers who brought in a set of bedsprings, cleaned off all the tackle and then threw the springs back out into that run.

I have done a lot of diving over the years...ocean, lakes and rivers. Even did some gold dredging a few years ago. I have never ceased to be amazed at all of the human castoffs and lost items you can find in our nation's waterways.

Back in the days when Nevada offered simple divorces, and other states were more difficult, a friend lived in Reno and made a good living diving for the wedding rings tossed into the Truckee River that runs near the courthouse. Many new divorcees would walk out on the bridge and toss their rings. Oh yeah, he saw a lot of big brown trout right in the middle of town too.
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#5
Have never found anything of value while fishing but perhaps I should start dredging the bottom while fishing on my float tube??? Must be a bunch of rod and reels down there.

Do have a story to tell about the first time I went float tubing in Balboa Island in Newport Beach. After I was done fishing I leaned some of my equipment against a residence's fence while loading up the car. I guess I was excited and did a lot of talking to my buddy about the day and got kinda scatterned....

Anyways, I packed up and went home, took a shower, ate some dinner then thought about cleaning the gears that are still in the car. It was 10 PM by then and I sat comfortably in my couch debating if I want to get up to clean. All of sudden, a mental picture tells me that I do not have my rod and reel in the car. I rushed out to the car and sure enough, they weren't there [shocked] I then realized I had left them leaning against the residence's fence. I got depressed and thought they were gone for sure. They were left there over 6 hours ago. They were not top of the line but still will cost about $200 to replace.

I hopped in the car and drove back anyways, I couldn't justify not at least giving it a try to see if they are still there. Imagine my surprise when I found the rod and reel still laying against the fence, along with a few other things I didn't remember that I left! This is an area that is frequented with lots of foot traffic too.

I was so pleased and impressed with that neighborhood that I would always tell the story to any locals there when I chat with them. Of course, having to suffer through the mental anguish of loss, I went out and bought another outfit to make myself feel better [laugh]
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#6
I usually double check all my gear before I leave. I get out and do a lot of back country trips both fishing and hunting. If I find something hiking of the trail the odds of finding the original owner is next to nothing.

I do feel bad for those guys that do loss that stuff. I'm sure it's much worse then having something stolen because you know you left it.

A buddy of mine found a back pack and belt pouch full of hunting gear. I couldn't believe somebody would take it off to do a stock or something like that and never come back or not look hard enough for their gear. I'd say he found about 3,000 dollars worth of gear. I didn't believe him until he showed me the stuff.

All this high dollar equipment probable isn't some local who's got a family to feed. I put money on it that it's some out of stater who makes a fortune and has the money to blow. If I lost something like that I'd spend the rest of my trip back tracking and find that stuff.
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#7

Hey there hedgesd,

Here's three incidents I was involved in to some degree in the last year.

1) I was struggling with a big cat and a guy came running with a net. I gave him the fish. He forgot his tackle box on the bank and I never saw him again. Put ad in paper. no good. Tried to have a local tackle shop hold on to it. no good. What can you do!

2) I go to a lot of landings very often. Some guys sell stuff that's left on the boats. The open-party boat's usually have a 'we know nothing about it' position. I've been offered whole boxes of forgotten stuff for almost nothing. But the fishing gods would be Angry.

3) I left 2 brand new jigs on the hood of my truck which was pointed toward the open asile for a whole day with anglers going on 10 or so boats and no one picked them up. Came back and there they were!!!

In this day and age, you can just about expect to accept the loss of something forgotten.

JapanRon
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