Lost and found!

Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
23
I dropped my new Large Exskelibur in the vaal river today, I was cutting fishing line off the prop of the outboard motor, and ... woops...I droped it! My first instint was to dive in after it as it was falling, then realised that my phone and wallet were in my pockets, so had to watch it sink away. Luckily the boat was tied up to the jetty at the time so I had a pretty good idea where it was and 4 HOURS later I found it! YEAH! with leaches and all.

I was wondering if any one esle has a lost and found story worth sharing
 
Mine is more mundane than yours, but it just happened. I lost my tiny Fenix EO1 flashlight while at an outdoor party about a month ago. They are pretty easy to lose because of their size (single AAA battery). Since I bought five of them at once, I had another one to replace it.

The other day, I was working in the area, and I stopped by the house. Told the guy working there I was going to look for my flashlight. I found it immediately lying on the ground right where I knew I had dropped it.

After being exposed to the excessively bad Vermont weather for an entire month (crap loads of rain and increasingly cold nights), it looked like I had just taken it out of its clam shell package. Turned it on, and worked perfectly, and have been using it since.

After putting it in my pocket with the other EO1, I could not tell which one was the lost one. Great little light for $15.
 
A few years back while at work I went to change the cutters on one of the six spindle machines. These were old, massive, 12 foot tall, made in the 1950s, Kearney Trecker milling machines for profiling blades for turbines. The have six spindles and cut that many blades simultaneously. To change the cutters out requires climbing to the top of the machine and removing the 6 foot long spindles by hand. The machine is of course covered in cutting oil. At any rate I took out my knife to clean up some threads. I set the knife down. It slipped. I saw it take a Rangers bounce into the machine.

I looked for that knife for a couple of weeks off and on. I knew it hads gone into the machine but I saw it no where.

4 years later we removed the machines from the plant. I found my knife. It had dropped down into the sump where it sat for four years. In the sump was a mix of cutting oil, hydraulic fluid from the many leaking hoses, acetone, mineral spirits, steel chips, and diluted and small amounts of spit, piss and blood, etc. The knife was in good shape and after some acetone and a cleaning good to go.

tipoc
 
A few years back while at work I went to change the cutters on one of the six spindle machines. These were old, massive, 12 foot tall, made in the 1950s, Kearney Trecker milling machines for profiling blades for turbines. The have six spindles and cut that many blades simultaneously. To change the cutters out requires climbing to the top of the machine and removing the 6 foot long spindles by hand. The machine is of course covered in cutting oil. At any rate I took out my knife to clean up some threads. I set the knife down. It slipped. I saw it take a Rangers bounce into the machine.

I looked for that knife for a couple of weeks off and on. I knew it hads gone into the machine but I saw it no where.

4 years later we removed the machines from the plant. I found my knife. It had dropped down into the sump where it sat for four years. In the sump was a mix of cutting oil, hydraulic fluid from the many leaking hoses, acetone, mineral spirits, steel chips, and diluted and small amounts of spit, piss and blood, etc. The knife was in good shape and after some acetone and a cleaning good to go.

tipoc

Good thing you were the one to move the machines. Otherwise, someone else might have walked off with it.
 
my buddy lost a mini presidio in a muddy corn field and was lucky enough to find it a year later. i've lost two knives, a gerber e-z out when i was 9 and a tops alrt 1, neither of which I ever found again
 
Glad you guys got your items back. I would have needed scuba gear to get mine. I have been bass fishing almost my entire life (lets just say 45+ yrs.). My wife finally talked me into entering a pro tournament a few years back. Needless to say, thank god I had long pants on to hide my knees that were banging into each other. Long boat ride, got to the area that the pro wanted, and got ready to fish. Naturally I was in the back of the boat & this was find with me. My first cast of my semi-pro fishing career, I had the unique priviledge of watching my 7/0 G-LOOMIS baitcaster & Daiwa Zillion reel go flying out of my hands & land in about 45' of water. I would have given anything to have a picture of the look I must have had on my face. The pro I was with just looked at me, smiled & said "Now you guys know why we bring 8-9 rods with us week after week. You'll think its for different conditions, but it's for times like this". He said he had did the same think a few weeks ago on Guntersville Lake, so I just shook my head, grabbed another rod of mine, & wondered if he just said that to help me feel better, or rather if it was true. Has anyone else ever dumped a rod in the drink ? ? :)
Be safe.
 
A lost a partially serrated tanto Boker knife for a few months. I looked but I guess I didn't look hard enough because the next time I saw it, it was clipped to the outside of my black backpack as I was boarding a bus after flying to New Mexico. So this:
01bo054.jpg

made it, quite unintentionally, through airport security and right into the airplane attached to my carry-on. (This was only a few years ago.) My heart skipped a beat when I found it. Plus I think it qualifies as a gravity knife.
 
years back i was tube fishing & went to shore to releive myself. when i put tuge back in lake one foot hung up & i flipped & tangled. had to drop rod & reel to get to shore & get out of tube to get untangled. was wearing chest waders with clothes & insulated underwear since it was march. went to a tackle store & bought some trotline cord & a big weighted treble hook. i pulled up lots of limbs & then a large branch with my tackle. had been in 3 days so since it was a complex shimano reel i had it cleaned by a dealer.was glad since it was about a 225$ rig.
dennis
 
Glad you guys got your items back. I would have needed scuba gear to get mine. I have been bass fishing almost my entire life (lets just say 45+ yrs.). My wife finally talked me into entering a pro tournament a few years back. Needless to say, thank god I had long pants on to hide my knees that were banging into each other. Long boat ride, got to the area that the pro wanted, and got ready to fish. Naturally I was in the back of the boat & this was find with me. My first cast of my semi-pro fishing career, I had the unique priviledge of watching my 7/0 G-LOOMIS baitcaster & Daiwa Zillion reel go flying out of my hands & land in about 45' of water. I would have given anything to have a picture of the look I must have had on my face. The pro I was with just looked at me, smiled & said "Now you guys know why we bring 8-9 rods with us week after week. You'll think its for different conditions, but it's for times like this". He said he had did the same think a few weeks ago on Guntersville Lake, so I just shook my head, grabbed another rod of mine, & wondered if he just said that to help me feel better, or rather if it was true. Has anyone else ever dumped a rod in the drink ? ? :)
Be safe.

Yep,
Fishing in a Local club Tournament at Patoka Lake in Indiana I lost a real nice rod the same way and fell out of the boat trying to retrieve it. When I came back up the guy I was fishing with was laughing his head off.:D
 
Tie down everything you want to keep when you go on the water. Lanyard your knife to your belt, then to your hand when using it. Same for fishing rods, etc. Glad you got your knife back.
 
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