Double Trouble

Of course I should've been warned when it happened to Sander. At the end of one of our sessions in the polder his streamer hit a log just under the surface, and as he pulled as hard as he could, suddenly I heard the sound of a whip followed by some unquotable swears. When I ran over to see what happened, I saw Sander standing there with just one meter of broken fly line outside his rod tip. The rest of the line, the leader and the streamer where still attached to the log. Game over, lesson learned: don't pull that hard on a stuck streamer when fishing with 0,80 fluorocarbon and swivels that are too strong. In Sander's case, it turned out that even the snake guides of two rod sections where severely bent, due to the acceleration of the fly line through the guides at the moment the line snapped.

Like I said, this should have been a warning. But no, when I was out there again one my own a few days later, I somehow had to top Sander's clumsyness by casting in the willows on the other bank. Look, there is is:

But that was just the appetizer. Since walking or swimming to the other shore was no option, I decided to give it a good yank, of course pulling in a straight line to avoid snapping the rod. Nothing moved. So I pullled some more. And more. And harder, until it looked like I was in the middle of a rope-pulling contest with the willow. But the tree just seemed to shake its head every now and then, as if it was telling me to give it up. This arrogance made me even madder, so I pulled even harder to show the shrub who's boss, and indeed, suddenly it let go. I thought. However, it turned out that the connection between the running line and the intermediate head had broken, leaving me - like Sander - with just a pityful piece of fly line outside the rod tip.

And when I was checking the snake guides for any damage, I noticed something else was missing besides the fly line, the leader and the streamer. The snapped fly line inside the rod had pulled the rod tip off the rod and launched it into the willow. Or better: that damn, arrogant willow took my rod tip too! Game over, and another lesson learned: when trying to pull loose a stuck streamer, always pull on the line outside the rod tip. Didn't I know that, one might ask. I did, but I was so caught up in the fight with the willow tree that........oh well, never mind.

So did I get my rod tip back? No. There was no way to reach the willow without swimming, and when I returned the next day with waders, everything was gone.

What did you say? Waders while piking in the polder? Well yeah, why not, Sander says. He uses them all the time. Old ones, that is. They're very warm (because you can easily wear ski pants in them), you only need a raincoat when it's raining and you never have to worry that your wellingtons may be too short.

Here's a situation where Sander's waders saved the day:

And then there was the reward: