Woo-hooo fishing....finally!, and a broken reel (fish lost)

Well. It has taken some time ...lots of time. I was finally able to get out fishing. As Xiaolu (James) mentioned in his post, we met up at a boat launch up on one of the lakes in Muskoka on Wednesday. I was with my family enjoying the sandy beach side of the launch and who comes back to the launch with some whitefish and laker? James! Thanks for the offer of a whitefish too...my wife thought that was very nice of you.
Anyway, I was finally able to figure out how to get some fishing in (esp. since I had finished off a bunch of work that usually takes up my nights...and later nights too so I can do early mornings for a couple of hours). Out I went the next morning (had the kayak and car all loaded up the night before). Up really early and launched before sunrise and started to fish just as the sun was coming up - a really beautiful sunrise to see.

Fished a tad over 2 hours and landed an 18.1" laker (a little bit bigger than I like for eating but I hadn't had fish from our lakes for a long time so...). Also missed another couple of chasers. No photos (still getting my act together and to get things running smoothly so no room/time for photos

Sunday, I decided to do it again since James said he was coming up. Same routine but this time I picked up a bag that was left on the dock (they had launched even earlier than I did and were out a couple of kms already and I could see some other boats out there fishing). James pulled up to the launch as I was leaving. I pedaled over to the first boat to see if it was theirs (but they did not launch from that dock). Next boat....same thing. I finally got to the two boats that I had thought likely left the bag....bingo (he knew the pin for the phone in the bag). So after a chat, I started fishing since they were in the area where I wanted to fish. Within 10 min., I hooked one and lost it within 2 sec....felt the weight and suspect it was a laker since it hit higher up. Went to explore the are a bit when I had no more marks on the sonar. Came back to the area and there was James with some other fishing buddies..as I approached, it looked like James had just hooked up but lost it too within seconds. A quick chat with James and back to fishing. I had a hard hit, set the hook and the reel breaks near the seat (I was holding it in the jigging pistol grip I often used ice fishing). Felt the weight of the fish as I was scrambling to get things under control...nope, lost the fish). Switched to another rod and 15 min. later, hooked up again. Lots it quickly as well (likely a whitefish but who really knows). Could have been a pretty good day...ended up with a skunk.

Anyone ever have this happen with the reel? It's a Shakespeare GX235 (came as a combo spinning rod/reel - GX2). Turns out the thing is made of some kind of plastic composite. Not the most expensive gear but also not cheap, cheap. I think it's regular priced at about $90 (now on sale for $70) at Cabela's. I don't really want a replacement....not fishing too often, I can't afford to lose fishing due to such malfunctions. I'll put one on of my Pflugger President reel.

Wow, I have never seen that before. Good choice on the Pfleuger President reel. Have 4 of them, and that's all I use.

They are great. I got two of them. Thought I would use one of these combos since I have used Ugly Stick rods before (saltwater ones) and those were tough rods. Hopefully, the rod of this combo will be tough too. I assumed the company would do a good pairing of the rod and reels in a combo. Good to see you back out there fishing as well.

It's been quite a while for you as well. I bet that fish tasted good. Good luck next time you are out on the water.

Wow I have never seen a break happen there….

Long time ago I accidentally stepped on a reel in snow while ice fishing and fiddling around with a fish on, and it broke almost like this. It was an inexpensive Pflueger Atlas, I was also surprised the reel body was plastic. I glued it together using epoxy and pieces of plastic fork on the sides and been using it paired with a broken rod, that I found also on the ice, for a chumming can back then.

I don't think I will spend any time trying to repair it. Hopefully, I can use it for spare parts but likely not. I can mount it on a plaque and spin a very tall tale about how big a fish broke that reel...with the evidence. Since I didn't see the fish, it can be as big as I want to say it was

The only time I had a reel like that is when my 280 lbs Jamaican fishing buddy slipped and fell and landed on all the rods and reels we had aboard. One reel ended up with a broken stem.

Arnie

An epoxy fix would be a quick thing to do. I think it would work fine.

An epoxy fix would be a quick thing to do. I think it would work fine.

I epoxied mine and first fish it broke.

Arnie

So that fish must have been a 280 lb Jamaican trout! An even better tale to tell now.
Or I can say "that's how friggin' strong my grip strength is!"

Since nobody has broken it like that setting the hook on a fish, maybe I will see if Shakespeare would like to have it bad to see where they went wrong....I didn't have a 280lb Jamaican around and although I haven't babied this rod/reel combo, I also didn't treat it like crap (it's still more or less scratch free) and I haven't fished more than about a dozen times with it (and never any hard fishing as I never really had time to fish for more than a couple of hours - Sunday was the most continuous softwater fishing I have done in years).

I wish you luck with Shakespear...I did not get a dime out of the Jamaican buddy.

Arnie

Yeah throw it in the garbage and enjoy the Pfleuger reel.

Nice report, hope you had a good trout dinner.

I fished there Sunday also, got my 2 small ones in the first hour then boated around

Didn't know you were there as well. Nice pair of lakers for eating. I would have liked a little smaller than the 18.5" one I got to eat but...
I probably should have tried to catch at least a fish before I went exploring but such a nice day and so calm - nice to pedal around to check out the lake.
I'm in a 10' darker grey pedal drive kayak with a white/grey cooler in the back. If you see me out there (hoping I can get out quite a few times before it gets much colder - each time for a couple of hours), feel free to drop by to say "hi".

Just saw/read your post John.

Nice to have met you (and another board member, Petru/Pete aka Berger with his fancy WaveWalk S4 kayak:-) this past Sunday on the lake.

Caught a laker at the time when you left with Petru around noon.

And then I fished a bit more with buddies until 2:30PM, and landed some more:-)