About 50 yrs ago, I took a friend of my Dad's fishing for Bass. He baited
up and then was sitting in the boat telling me a story before casting. His
rod was over his shoulder with the worm a few inches off the water. I
thought he was going to have a heart attack when a Bass jumped up and took
his bait. He didn't see it coming. He and my Dad did a lot of hunting and
fishing together in the 30's and 40's. I used to love to sit and listen to
them tell stories of their experiences. Made me sad that I didn't come
along until '42 and missed out on all of that.

Tom G.

This same just happened to a friend of mine the last week of July while
we where fishing in Canada. Except he lost the rod and reel. He had his
rod laying in his boat with the end out over the water with his yellow
curly tail about 4~6" out of the water. He was helping his wife remove
a fish from her rod when he heard splash. He saw his rod and reel going
over the edge. By the time he grabbed his boat hook it had vanished
into the depths of Bobs Lake.

Funny thing thought, it almost happened to me two days later. We where
in my boat, fishing at dusk. I laid my rod down to help him net a 16"
LM after I handed him the net and fish I heard the splash of something
trying to get my 8" purple worm. Fortunately it just had the tail and
let go.

Paul