River of no return - mark your stuff

So what fishing stuff did I lose last year? Well, first off, I’m missing an SOSpenders inflatable life vest. I noticed it was missing about two weeks after a relative wore it on a pike-fishing trip in early July.

That particular day was cool and raining and we were wearing several layers of clothes. At one point, my cousin kicked his personal pontoon craft to shore to get rid of some coffee and I noticed him peeling off clothes, including the SOSpenders.

Long story short, at the end of the day, the inflatable vest never made it back into the zippered storage bag. Unfortunately, I hadn’t written my name and phone number on the vest.

Maybe the vest was forgotten in shoreline reeds, or maybe it just didn’t make it from the pile into the bag, or maybe …who knows?

The point is, without a name and phone number, there is virtually no chance that item will ever be returned to me. So, there’s no better time than right now to mark your stuff.

More than once over the years, I’ve put my name on my stuff, but let’s face it, one of our obligations as fishermen is to buy more stuff.

And it’s easy to forget to mark it. Tackle boxes, fish finders, lanterns and flashlights are easy to remember, but rods, fly boxes, vests and reels, not so easy.

Many years ago, as we were pulling out of Magee Lake, Bill asked if I was sure I’d picked up everything.

“Yup,” I answered. “Keep driving.”

“Ah, let’s stop and take one more look,” Bill said.

Sure enough, a bag holding a half dozen fly reels was lying on the ground, unmarked.

OK, OK, I’m gonna mark my stuff again.

By the way, you haven’t seen a clear Plano box filled with Swedish Pimples and other jigging blades, have you? Can’t find it either.