Early this season, I made a completely bonehead error, by not taking a moment to allow myself enough casting clearance, and it cost me ----- sort of.

 

To preface this, I am a shore angler who likes to keep my fishing investments down to conservative levels, to say the least.  I own two rods.  One casting, one spinning.  And those two more than suffice for my needs.  My baitcaster is a cheap combo, from Pinnacle, which I am nonetheless very pleased with.   And my spinning rig is simply an Abu Garcia blank rod, maybe a vengeance, I dont recall.  And my reel is just a $9 Walmart special, of some description.  But one day, I decided to head to the water, and packed up all my fishing stuff...everything, except for my brain, apparently.

 

Anyway, I get down to the dock, I set my spinning rig down, leaned it up against the guard rail, and cast off with my baitcaster.  Upon that cast, all I heard and felt was..CRRRRAACKKK!!.

 

I look to see the top 4" of the spinning rod was gone, and the its line had been snapped.  With one rod, I had chopped the top off of the other rod.....I chopped it off.  I unwittingly sliced through that sucker, like a samurai warrior.  I couldnt believe I had just done that.  What a bonehead error.  

 

However, upon further inspection, my casting rod, remained completely unscathe.  Well how bout that. And it has since survived several fish.  A testament to the strength and value of a cheap combo, whilst in the hands of carelessness. 

Glad you aren't too put out . We've all had careless moments...

that sucks....i did the same sort of thing with a fly rod in a small mountain stream and i set the hook on a brookie into an overhanging tree branch....fished the rest of the day without the top section lol 

caught one of my brand new combos one time while casting and pulled it off my kayak into about 25 feet of water.... i spent about an hour dragging some weighted treble hooks but no luck...  makes you really think about what you're doing after that!

You, my friend, have a way with words. I am really sorry for your loss, and I want to start by saying that I am NOT the type of person to take enjoyment at other people's misfortunes.

Having gotten that out of the way, there is something to be said for the way you painted that scene which still has me laughing every time I re-read it. Simply put, it was perfectly delivered. Bravo, oh absent minded sumarai warrior! Bravo.

I actually ended up taking "a little off the top" on one of my rods earlier this week too (set the hook a bit hard on what turned out to be a stump- aided by the fact that the rod was pointed straight up while the line was headed straight downward). Here's hoping that our luck turns around and we can go back to slaying the fish instead of our fishing equipment. Cheers

Glad you aren't too put out . We've all had careless moments...

Of course not, as with many things in fishing, it became a great excuse to go ahead and pick up that better rod I had been wanting for a while.